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The Aeroplane Boys Series 


A Cruise In The Sky 

OR 

The Legend of the Great Pink Pearl 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 

By ASHTON LAMAR 

I IN THE CLOUDS FOR UNCLE SAM 

Or, Morey Marshall of the Signal Corps. 

n THE STOLEN AEROPLANE 

Or. How Bud Wilson Made Good. 

m THE AEROPLANE EXPRESS 

Or, The Boy Aeronaut’s Grit. 

IV THE BOY AERONAUTS’ CLUB 

Or, Flying For Fun. 

V A CRUISE IN THE SKY 

Or, The Legend of the Great Pink Pearl. 

VII BATTLING THE BIG HORN 

Or, The Aeroplane in the Rockies. 

OTHER TITLES TO FOLLOW 

These stories are the newest and most up-to-date. All aeroplane de- 
tails are correct. Fully illustrated. Colored frontispiece. Clo&, 12mos. 
Price, 60 cents each. 


The Airship Boys Series 

By H. L. SAYLER 

I THE AIRSHIP BOYS 

Or, The Quest of the Aztec Treasure. 

n THE AIRSHIP BOYS ADRIFT 

Or, Saved by an Aeroplane. 

in THE AIRSHIP BOYS DUE NORTH 

Or, By Balloon to the Pole. 

IV THE AIRSHIP BOYS IN THE 

BARREN LANDS 

Or, The Secret of the White Eskimos. 

V THE AIRSHIP BOYS IN FINANCE 

Or. The Flight of the Flying Cow. 

VI THE AIRSHIP BOYS’ OCEAN FLYER 

Or, New York to London in Twelve Hours. 

These thrilling stories deal with the wonderful new science of aerial 
navigation. Every boy will be interested and Instructed by reading 
them. Illustrated. Cloth binding. Price, $ 1 .OO each. 

The above books are sold everywhere or will be sent 
postpaid on receipt of price by the 

Publishers The Reilly & Britton Co. Chicago 

Complete catalog sent, postpaid on request 




XltiU. 






He Took the Tiller 


AT Times. 


(Sec page 113.) 







A 

Cruise In The Sky 

OR 

The Legend of the Great Pink Pearl 



Illustrated by S. H. Riesenberg 


Chicago 

The Reilly k Britton Co. 
Publishers 






COPYRIGHT 1911 
by 

THE REILLY & BRITTON CO. 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 


WA 


3 V'TU- 


A CRUISE IN the sky 





©CI.A-<i95‘^04 


CONTENTS 


CHAP. PAGE 

I A Florida Metropolis 9 

II The Strange Work of a Wilderness Exile 20 

III A Boat Without Sails, Screw or Oars 31 

IV The Sequel of the Aero-Catamaran 41 

V The Home of the Eccentric Experimenter. ... 52 

VI An Unfinished Letter Solves a Mystery 65 

VII The Firm of Leighton & Anderson is Formed. . . 75 

VIII Andy First Hears of King Cajou 86 

IX A New Idea in Aeroplanes 97 

X Desperate Needs and a Bold Appeal 109 

XI Koy Osborne Reaches Valkaria 121 

XII The Pelican Makes Its First Flight 133 

XIII Ba, the Bahaman, Talks at Last 145 

XIV Andy Takes a Daring Chance 157 

XV Timbado Key and Captain Monckton Bassett. .171 

XVT The Cannibal King and the Pink Pearl 186 

XVII The Bird of Death 202 





LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


He took the tiller at times Frontispiece 

Nothing much doing!" 57 

^^Jump in," said Andy 183 


^ * Come, Bird of Death ! * * 


209 


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A Cruise in the Sky 

OR 

The Legend of the Great Pink Pearl 


CHAPTER I 

A FLORIDA METROPOLIS 

All afternoon the train had been following 
the picturesque shore of the Indian Eiver, in 
Florida. The snow and ice of the north had 
long since disappeared. Summer heat increased 
as the train sped southward. Most of the seats 
in the car were filled with tourists on their 
way to Palm Beach. Two persons, both from 
their looks and actions, were not destined to 
that aristocratic winter resort. 

In one of the sections were a woman and a 
boy. The latter, about sixteen years old, was 
begrimed with dust and smoke, but there was a 
snap in his eyes. In the fast gathering dusk, 
he sat, his nose mashed against the window and 
his eyes shaded by his hands, as if anxious to 
9 


10 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


catch every detail of the strange land through 
which the train was flying. 

The woman glanced out of the window now 
and then in a nervous manner, and, at last, 
when it was almost wholly dark and the porter 
had begun to turn on the electric lights, she 
touched the boy on the shoulder. 

‘^Look at your watch again, Andrew. We 
must be almost there.’’ 

As the boy drew out a watch (his father’s, 
lent to him as a safeguard on the long trip), 
his lips puckered. 

‘‘Twenty minutes!” he exclaimed, almost in 
alarm. “We ’re due at Valkaria at 8:15. It’s 
five minutes of eight now. ’ ’ 

“O, dear, I hope they won’t forget to stop,” 
said the woman, with increasing nervousness. 
“Hadn’t you better speak to the conductor 
again? I don’t know what we ’d do if we were 
carried past our station.” 

“I know,” answered the boy, with a laugh. 
“If they forgot us, they ’d have to bring us back 
for nothing. But the conductor won’t forget. 
I ’ve pestered him so often about it that I guess 
he ’ll be glad to get rid of us. ’ ’ 

“I never thought about it being dark when 
we got there, ’ ’ the woman went on, as the lights 


A Cruise in the Shy 


11 


in the car turned the outside world into black- 
ness. “I suppose we ’d better not try to open 
up your uncle’s house to-night.” She looked 
out into the deep shadows of the palmettos. 

We ’ll go to a hotel or boarding house 
to-night.” 

‘‘What ’s the use*?” argued the boy. “That 
is, unless you are too tired. It ’ll be a useless 
expense. I ’d like to find the house to-night, if 
we can. Someone can show us. Every one in 
the town ’ll know where Uncle Abner lived.” 

“We must go to Captain Anderson first,” re- 
plied the woman at once. “He is the one who 
wrote to us of your uncle’s death, and sent the 
body to us for burial. He has the key to the 
house, and he was your uncle’s friend.” 

“Maybe their homes were near together,” 
suggested the boy hopefully. “I guess it is n’t 
a very big town, and it won’t be very late. We 
can go to a restaurant and get our supper and 
then find Captain Anderson. He can take us 
right to the house to-night. It ’ll be kind o ’ like 
campin’ out — ” 

‘ ‘ Camping out ? ’ ’ interrupted the woman. ‘ ‘ I 
hope not, although,” and she smiled faintly, 
“that would just suit you.” 

The boy only laughed and again tried to make 
out the landscape. 


12' The Aeroplane Boys Series 

he said at last, ‘‘even if it ’s on the 
main street of Valkaria, it won’t he far to the 
river, and that ’ll he something.” 

“What do you think it will be like?” asked 
the woman as she gathered her hag and wraps 
together. 

“I don’t care much,” replied the boy, 
dragging his suitcase from beneath the seat, 
“just so it isn’t too fancy — I don’t want to 
be mowing lawns all the time, ’specially in 
January.” 

Just then there was the hoarse sound of the 
locomotive whistle, and, almost with it, the 
grinding of the quick set brakes. As the woman 
and the boy sprang to their feet, the train con- 
ductor hurried into the car and the porter 
sprang forward to help with the baggage of the 
anxious travelers. As the other passengers 
aroused themselves in surprise at the unex- 
pected stop, the woman and the boy were hur- 
ried to the platform and, the long train scarcely 
coming to a stop, assisted precipitately from the 
car. 

Instead of landing upon a depot platform, 
the two suddenly disembarked passengers found 
themselves on a sandy incline, slipping slowly 
downward into a dry ditch. They were con- 


A Cruise in the Sky 


13 


scions that their hag, suitcase and wraps 
had lodged somewhere near their feet. Scram- 
bling to upright positions, they both turned 
only to see two fading green lights marking the 
fast disappearing Lake Worth express. 

‘‘Andrew!’’ exclaimed the woman, clasping 
the boy’s arm. 

“Looks like they ’ve dumped us into nothin’, 
mother.” 

“It ’s gone!” the woman almost shouted. 

“GoneT’ repeated the boy. “You bet she ’s 
gone, and gettin’ goner about a mile a minute.” 

“What ’ll we do?” 

The boy laid his hands on his mother’s arms. 

“Looks like a mistake. But don’t get scared. 
Let ’s look about. If this is Valkaria, I reckon 
it must be the outskirts of the town.” 

‘ ‘ The trunks, ’ ’ cried the boy ’s mother. ‘ ‘ And 
they Ve taken our trunks. What are we to do? 
Something awful is sure to happen to us. ’ ’ 

“It has n’t happened yet, mother. And I can 
begin to see something. What ’s this?” 

On the far side of the ditch, a dark mass out- 
lined itself in the night. While his mother pro- 
tested, the boy clambered up the bank. Then a 
peal of boyish laughter sounded in the still 
night. 


14 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


’s all right, mother. We ’re right in town. 
This is the union depot. It ’s an old box car. 
And here ’s the sign on it — ‘Valkaria.’ ” 

There was a half hysterical sob, and the boy 
rushed back to his frightened parent. 

Don’t be scared, mother. It ’s all right. 
This is the place. There ’s bound to be someone 
near. Brace up.” 

Just then the hoarse croak of a frog sounded, 
and the woman broke into tears. The boy, 
attempting to pacify her, began another survey 
of his surroundings. 

‘^Look, mother. It ’ll be moonlight in a little 
while. See!” 

As he pointed to the east, they could make 
out the glowing rim of the full moon just sil- 
vering the waxen tops of the encircling palmet- 
tos. Composing herself somewhat, the fright- 
ened woman allowed the boy to help her through 
the loose sand to the makeshift depot. 

Along the front of it ran a rude, tramp- 
hacked bench. On this, the two seated them- 
selves. The depot-car was doorless. As the 
boy observed this, he laughed again. 

‘^Wliy, this is n’t bad, mother. We can sleep 
in here — ” 

‘^In there?” protested his mother. There 


A Cruise in the Shy 


15 


are insects there, I know. I ’m not going to 
move from this bench till daylight. Then we dl 
take the first train back to the north.’’ 

‘ ^It may be our mistake, mother. Maybe Val- 
karia isn’t a town at all. I reckon it isn’t, 
judgin’ by the depot.” 

‘‘Why should they call an old car ‘Val- 
karia?’ ” exclaimed the woman. “Cars don’t 
have names. They have numbers. ’ ’ 

“I give it up,” answered the boy, with some 
cheerfulness. “But I don’t see that it ’s so bad. 
The weather is fine. I ’ll bet it ’s dandy around 
here in the daytime. That moon ’s makin’ 
things kind o ’ great, now. ’ ’ 

“What ’s that?” exclaimed the woman, sud- 
denly catching her son by the arm and point- 
ing in the direction in which the train disap- 
peared. ‘ ‘ There ! Across the railroad ! ’ ’ 

The boy had seen it too. A broad, ribbon-like 
band of chalky-white extended from the black 
shadow of the palmettos on the left, crossed the 
track, and lost itself in the blackness beyond. 
As the boy looked he caught sight of similar 
thin strips along the track. 

“It ’s sand, mother. Looks like a ghost, but 
it ’s white Florida sand. And I ’ll bet it ’s a, 
road. Let ’s try it. If it ’s a road, it goes, 
somewhere.” 


16 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

Anything was better than the black, noisome 
box car. The boy made his way into the now 
half illuminated ditch and collected the scat- 
tered baggage. Laden with it, the marooned 
travelers set forward. As the boy surmised, 
the white strip was a road. When they reached 
it, they discovered, to their relief, safely lying 
in the gully beyond the crossing, their two 
trunks. 

‘‘Better get ’em out o’ the ditch, in case o’ 
rain,” said the boy, and, despite his years, the 
well-muscled lad tackled the job. It was not an 
easy one, but, by rolling and sliding, the heavy 
parcels were soon landed on the edge of the 
soft roadway. The moon was now shining so 
brightly that the lad could make out the time. 
It was 8:35 P.M. 

“Now,” said the lad, mopping his face, “we 
can go toward the river or away from it.” 

“Perhaps the town is on the river,” sug- 
gested his mother, more composed. “We ’ll 
try — there ’s a light,” she added excitedly. 

Far down the white strip of road was cer- 
tainly a light. From its low, regular swing, the 
boy at once concluded that it was a lantern. 
He so informed his mother, who immediately 
became newly panic-stricken. 


A Cruise in the Shy 


17 


‘‘It may be robbers,’’ she gasped, clutching 
her son’s arm again. 

“Robbers don’t carry lanterns, mother. 
Let ’s hope it ’s the hotel runner or transfer 
man. ’ ’ 

“Or tramps,” added the woman in a fright- 
ened whisper. 

“Look here, mother,” answered the boy 
soberly. “You know the only way for us to 
get out of this mess is to find someone to tell us 
where we are and what we ’ve got to do. There 
is certainly someone coming toward us. Do 
you want to meet whomever it is, or run away 
and hide in the bushes ! ’ ’ 

“I suppose we ought to wait,” answered his 
mother meekly. 

“Wait nothin ’, ’ ’ exclaimed the boy. “ We ’ll 
march right up to the relief party. ’ ’ 

Leaving -their baggage in the road, the boy 
took his mother by the hand and, despite her 
alarm, marched her forward along the road. 
The suspense was soon over. In a few mo- 
ments, a figure emerged from the shadows. 
While it was yet a hundred yards away, the 
anxious boy, partly to keep up his courage, 
sang out a bold “Hello I” 

“You folks get otf that train?” was the re- 
sponse in a man’s voice. 


18 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


did/^ answered the boy. ‘‘Where ’s 
Valkaria?^^ 

“Valkaria?’^ repeated the approaching 
stranger good-naturedly. “Why, you ’re right 
on the main street now.” 

The man, who by this time had reached them, 
was unquestionably neither robber nor tramp. 
He was past middle age, well but roughly 
dressed, and wore a yachting cap on top of a 
good growth of silvery white hair, which lay 
above a face bronzed by the sun and wind. 

“We are from the north,” hastily explained 
the woman, “and we are looking for the place 
where my brother-in-law, Mr. Abner Leighton, 
lived — ” 

“Then you must be — ” 

“Mrs. Howard Leighton, of St. Paul. And 
this is my son, Andrew. We have come — ” 

“I understand,” interrupted the man quickly. 
“I wrote to your husband. My name is An- 
derson — Captain Anderson. Why didn’t you 
let me know? We ’d have met you. I heard 
the train stop, and I wondered what it meant. 
So I came up to see. I ’m glad to meet you.” 

“And you live here?” began Mrs. Leighton, 
as Captain Anderson shook hands with her and 
Andy. “You can’t imagine how relieved I am. 


A Cruise in the Sky 19 

But are there any buildings — a hotel or board- 
ing house?’’ 

‘‘Yes,” continued Andy. “We ’ve got all 
this stuff scattered along Main Street, and 
have n’t had any supper, and as for sleepin’ — ” 

Captain Anderson laughed and picked up his 
lantern. 

“As for your baggage, we ’ll take care of 
that in short order. Your uncle and I were 
friends for many years. His house is over on 
the other side of the railroad. You can’t go 
there to-night. My place is down here on the 
river — ” 

“But, Captain — ” began Mrs. Leighton. 

“Young man,” interrupted the captain, 
ignoring Mrs. Leighton’s protest, “take this 
lantern and start right down the road with your 
mother. I ’ll be after you as soon as I find those 
grips. You ’ll eat and sleep to-night in the 
Anderson house. There isn’t any Valkaria 
but a signboard.’^ 


.CHAPTER n 


THE STRANGE WORK OF A WILDERNESS EXILE 

Captain Joe Anderson’s real home was in 
the north on one of the great lakes. As a 
young man he had devoted much of his time to 
yachting. Therefore, when he and Mrs. An- 
derson sought a winter home in the south, he 
built his bungalow on the wide, baylike Indian 
River. 

To this salubrious spot Captain Joe and his 
wife hastened each fall. With no servants, 
Mrs. Anderson saw to the few household needs. 
Living on the shore of the biggest and most 
beautiful body of boating water in America, 
Captain Joe gave every daylight hour to sailing 
and making boats. 

Just to the left of his trim little cottage was 
a low, wide building. Therein, when summer 
came. Captain Anderson stored his boats. 
These ran from his well-known sailing yacht 
'Walkaria,” down through smaller craft for 
fishing and cruising to three or four skiffs or 
rowboats. He had no power-boats and, as 
20 


A Cruise in the Sky 


21 


Andy Leighton soon learned, had no patience 
with those who owned or operated them. 

At this time of the year, with his boats safely 
moored at the long pier, which extended 150 
yards out into the shallow river, the boathouse 
was a boat shop. Here, when he was not on 
the water sailing with Mrs. Anderson, Captain 
Joe was busy, slowly working into shape some 
new water craft. Some days, when it rained 
or a norther brought a chill to the balmy spot, 
he would kindle a fire in the big stove in the 
boathouse, and, his tools lying idle, sit and 
read. 

Before Mrs. Leighton and Andy had even 
come in sight of the light in the Anderson home 
the captain had rejoined them, 

don’t know how we are going to repay 
you for your kindnesSi Captain. Anderson,” 
Andy’s mother began. 

know one way,” answered their rescuer 
good-humoredly. ‘^Your brother-in-law’s home 
is n’t much of a place, but if you and your son 
can see your way to livin’ there awhile each 
winter, that ’ll be all the reward I want. It 
gets pretty lonesome down here sometimes for 
Mrs. Anderson.” 

Then the two older persons began to ex- 


22 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

change talk about their northern homes and 
possible mutual friends. At the first oppor- 
tunity, Andy broke in : 

“Captain Anderson, what did my uncle do 
down here ? I suppose he raised oranges. ’ ’ 

“Your uncle was a peculiar man,’’ answered 
the captain. “I liked him. But I never could 
understand why a good lawyer should bury 
himself in the wilderness.” 

“Father says he used to be a fine lawyer,” 
commented the boy, “but his health failed.” 

“And like a lot more such people,” added 
Captain Anderson,* “he got to livin’ alone and 
bein’ so much alone, he got sort o’ peculiar.” 

“One could tell that from his letters, when 
we got any,” interrupted Mrs. Leighton. “He 
used to write about some invention on which 
he was working. ’ ’ 

“An engine,” broke in Andy. “Father told 
me my uncle thought he had an engine that was 
to do wonderful things. Did it work?” 

“Oh, his engine worked all right,” answered 
Captain Joe soberly. “There wasn’t any 
trouble about that. That was n ’t his real weak- 
ness. He made engines that ’d work just as 
long as he ran ’em like other people, with steam 
or gasoline. But steam and gasoline didn’t 


A Cruise in the Shy 


23 


suit him. He was lookin^ for some other kind 

power; something cheap and light — calcium 
something I think it was.’’ 

^‘Gas from calcium carbide?” suggested 
Andy impulsively. 

‘‘Yes, that ’s it — calcium carbide,” went on 
Captain Joe, “though I never took any stock 
in it and never paid much attention to it. He 
said when he got his generator finished, he ’d 
be able to carry his power in a little tube.” 

“And did he?” persisted Andy, pushing for- 
ward. “Did he finish his generator?” 

Instead of replying at once. Captain Ander- 
son dropped back by Mrs. Leighton’s side. 

“Madam,” he said soberly, “the doctor said 
your brother-in-law died o’ heart disease. 
But there was enough other things in that shop 
o ’ his to kill him, — gases and fumes and odors, 
— and if I had a guess about what ended his 
lonesome life, I ’d say it was as much that idea 
of his as a weak heart. If he ever got at the 
bottom o’ what he was lookin’ for,” added 
Captain Anderson, turning to the eager Andy, 
“I reckon no one ’ll ever know imless he wrote 
it down. And there ’s nothin’ o’ that sort so 
far as I know.” 

While Mrs. Leighton made further inquiries 


24 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

concerning her late relative Andy’s brain was 
beginning to burn with a sudden and new curi- 
osity. Andy’s father was a factory foreman, 
and the family lived in a modest home in a city 
suburb, but the boy had already finished the 
second year of high school. Andy had all the 
dreams, desires, and determinations of the 
average boy. But he had something more — a 
decided bent for mechanics. 

Only the summer before, Andy and a class- 
mate had made a single-cylinder gas engine. 
It didn’t happen to work when completed, but 
that did n ’t matter. The making of it had given 
Andy a good knowledge of engines. Like many 
an older person, he was already theorizing on 
a new motive power. Anyway, he knew what 
Captain Joe meant when he spoke of ‘‘calcium 
something. ’ ’ 

“Captain Anderson,” said Andy, breaking 
in on the talk of his elders, “is it too late to see 
my uncle’s shop to-night?” 

“It ’ll be too late when we ’ve had some 
supper. But in the morning I ’ll turn over the 
key. Everything is there just as Mr. Leighton 
left it — except the engine he made two years 
ago, and that ’s in my boathouse. ’ ’ 

“Does that one work?” persisted Andy, 
eagerly. 


A Cruise in the Shy 


25 


^‘It does, with gasoline,’^ returned the man. 
‘‘That ’s the one your uncle made for the aero- 
catamaran. I ’ll turn that over to you — I 
haven’t any use for power-boats.” 

“Aero-catamaran?” exclaimed Andy. 
“What ’s that?” 

“That?” repeated the captain. “WTiy, — 
but here ’s the house.” 

“Tell me just one thing,” pleaded the ex- 
cited boy. “Is the aero-catamaran a boat?” 

“A kind of a boat — or was,” laughed the 
captain. 

“And it belonged to my uncle?” 

“I made the boat, but your uncle made the 
engine, and I gave him the boat — ^no power- 
boats for me.” 

“Can I have it?” blurted out Andy. 

“Andrew!” broke in Mrs. Leighton. “What 
do you mean? I ’m ashamed of you.” 

“I meant,” began Andy, abashed, “that I ’d 
like to see it and — and run it.” 

‘ ‘ Of course, ’ ’ laughed the captain. ‘ ‘ I under- 
stand. Well, anyway, it ’s no use to me. I 
know nothing about engines. ’ ’ 

Just then the party reached the cottage. Mrs. 
Anderson waited for no introductions. In a 
few minutes Mrs. Leighton and Andy were 


26 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

seated in a summery living room. Wliile Mrs. 
Leighton protested over the unexpected hos- 
pitality and Mrs. Anderson removed her guest’s 
wraps, Captain Anderson could be heard start- 
ing anew the fire in the kitchen cook stove. 

“We have n’t any guest chamber,” explained 
Mrs. Anderson, with a laugh; “but you,” tak- 
ing Mrs. Leighton by the arm, “will share my 
bedroom with me. Captain Anderson will sleep 
in the boathouse, and the boy can sleep on the 
couch in this room.” 

Their hostess had already led Mrs. Leighton 
into the adjoining room. So Andy improved 
the opportunity to look about. The room had a 
sort of seaside air. Within an unusual fire- 
place of stone, stood the model of a schooner- 
rigged yacht. On the mantel was a large silver 
cup, apparently a prize or a trophy, while at 
the right and the left of it, were large pink- 
hearted conch shells. On the wall above was a 
decoration of pink, yellow, and purple West 
Indian sea fans. 

While the highly interested boy was noting 
these things. Captain Anderson reappeared. 

“I reckon mother can see to something in the 
way of eatin’, Andy,” he said with a laugh, 
“and we ’ll just about have time to get the 
trunks.” 


A Cruise in the Sky 


27 


As the boy responded with a laugh of his 
own he pointed to the sea fans on the wall. 

^‘They don’t grow here, do they!” he asked. 

Those!” said the boy’s host. ^‘Oh, no; 
they came from the sea gardens near Nassau. 
Mrs. Anderson and I usually sail over there 
each spring — for a change.” 

‘^From here!” asked Andy. 

^‘Why not!” responded the captain, with a 
smile. ^‘But I suppose you don’t know that the 
Indian River is only an arm of the sea. It runs 
all along the coast like a big inland lake, and 
there are several places where you can get out 
to sea.” 

‘‘And Nassau,” repeated the open-mouthed 
Andy — “where ’s that!” 

“I reckon I ’ll have to get down the map for 
you,” answered the amused captain. “Nassau 
is the only town in all the three thousand or 
more Bahama Islands. And it ’s about two 
hundred and fifty miles from here. But you 
can strike the Bahamas long before that. In 
one place they ’re not over eighty-five miles 
from America.” 

As Andy’s eyes contracted, a mind reader 
would have detected these thoughts already 
linking themselves in the boy’s brain: “work- 


28 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

ing engine, boat, Indian River, ocean, Bahama 
Islands. ’ ’ 

‘‘I guess I know what you’re thinkin’ about,” 
ventured Captain Anderson, with a mischievous 
laugh. ‘‘And if I ’m not mistaken, in the next 
few days there ’s goin’ to be a pretty busy boy 
around these parts.” 

“Well,” answered Andy, with a similar smile, 
“wherever I am, I ’m not in the habit of takin’ 
root. And I won’t need a gong to get me up in 
the morning. ’ ’ 

By the time the man and the boy had secured 
the broad-wheeled trundle cart that Captain 
Anderson used in transporting freight, and 
had gone for the trunks, Mrs. Leighton had 
refreshed herself by removing the stains of 
travel, and Mrs. Anderson was well forward 
in the preparation of a supper for the 
strangers. 

“It ’s a long way to haul the trunks for just 
over night,” said Mrs. Leighton, as Captain 
Anderson and Andy carried them onto the 
gallery. 

“It ’s the easiest way,” explained Captain 
Anderson. “When you want to send them to 
Mr. Leighton’s house, we ’ll take ’em by water. 
Goat Creek empties into the river just above 


A Cruise in the Sky 


29 


here, and it winds back right past your brother- 
in-law ’s place. I dl have to lend Andy one of 
my rowboats.” 

‘^Supper ’s all ready,” annonnced Mrs. An- 
derson. ^^We haven’t any real milk or cream, 
and no real butter, but we get used to 
substitutes. ’ ’ 

With this apology she seated her guests to a 
repast of fried lake trout, fried yams, home- 
made bread, orange marmalade, guava jelly, 
tea, and by way of dessert, an enormous pine- 
apple ripened on the plant. By the time the 
tired and hungry travelers had shown their full 
appreciation of Mrs. Anderson’s culinary skill 
it wag well after ten o’clock. Mrs. Leighton 
and Mrs. Anderson having arranged Andy’s 
bed on the couch, they withdrew. 

As Captain Anderson lit a lantern for use 
in the boathouse, Andy, a little embarrassed, 
whispered : 

^‘Captain Anderson, can’t I see those maps 
you were talking about — those that show where 
the Bahama Islands aref” 

The captain, with a grunt of amusement, went 
to a rack and took down a chart. 

^^On one condition: you mustn’t stay up 
more than fifteen minutes.” 


30 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

With a nod of acquiescence, Andy — who had 
never seen the ocean, and who had not the 
slightest knowledge of boats — caught the map 
eagerly and hastened to the table on which was 
a big oil lamp. As Captain Anderson left the 
room he glanced back and saw the excited boy 
intently poring over an old chart of the Bahama 
and West India Islands. 


CHAPTEE III 


A BOAT WITHOUT SAILS, SCBEW, OR OARS 

It did not require a gong to aronse Andy in 
the morning, but it did call for a gentle shak- 
ing from his mother ^s hand. 

‘^Gee!’’ he exclaimed as he tumbled out of 
bed, ‘^I ’m losin’ time. But I reckon I ’d better 
wait till breakfast is over. ’ ’ 

‘‘Just what is all this hurry about?” asked 
Mrs. Leighton. “You must remember, my son, 
this is not a hotel.” 

“Yes, I know,” explained the boy, “but there 
is so much to do to-day.” 

“Well, please don^t get excited,” said his 
mother with some severity, “we ’ll proceed 
with our own affairs when it suits our host and 
hostess. And remember, Andy, you are not 
to accept a boat from Captain Anderson as a 
gift.” 

“I understand,” answered the boy, with an 
attempt to control his enthusiasm. “But, say, 
mother, look at this.” 

He caught up the map he had so eagerly ex- 
31 


32 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

amined the night before. His hair tousled, and 
still in his bare feet, Andy spread it before his 
perplexed mother. ‘‘Here, look,’’ he went on, 
“all these things are islands, the Bahama Is- 
lands, the West India Islands — that ’s where 
everything comes from you read about — 
sponges and tropical fruits, bananas and 
things, and,” he looked up, his eyes blazing, 
“we could go there if we had a boat — they ’re 
right over here — ” 

“Andrew,” said his mother slowly, as she 
motioned him toward his undonned clothes, 
“you are here because your father couldn’t 
come and because I could n’t come alone. When 
we have looked into your dead uncle’s affairs 
and arranged them as well as we can, we are 
going back home. We are not going to the 
Bahamas. ’ ’ 

“Yes ’m,” answered Andy meekly. 

“From the minute we landed here, you ’ve 
been excited. You seem to think this is the 
beginning of some remarkable adventure. It 
is n’t. It is a business trip.” 

“Yes ’m.” 

“Now, you quiet yourself, get on your 
clothes, and when we ’ve had our breakfast and 
Captain Anderson is ready, we ’ll go about our 


A Cruise in the Shy 


33 


business like two sane persons. Don’t let me 
hear anything more about engines, boats, or the 
West Indies.” 

Yes ’m.” 

A little later, Andy, having completed his 
morning toilet, slowly wandered from the house 
toward the pier where Captain Anderson was 
making an early examination of his boats. 

^‘HeUo there!” sang out the captain. ‘‘I 
thought you ’d be out by sun up.” 

kind o’ overslept,” answered Andy sadly. 

‘‘Why, what ’s the matter? Didn’t you rest 
well!” 

“Too well,” was the boy’s slow rejoinder. 

“WeU, don’t worry about it. We ’ve got lots 
of time to talk over things. Did you lay out a 
course to the Bahamas before you turned in?” 

Andy sighed and looked sorrowfully out 
over the river. 

“Nothin’ doin’ in the Bahamas line,” he 
said at last. 

“You seem to be in the dumps,” Captain 
Anderson remarked. 

“I reckon you ’d be, too, if you had the trim- 
min’ I just got.” 

“Trimmin’?” 

“My mother thinks I ’ve been botherin’ you 
too much. Have I?” 


34 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


‘^Botherin’ me? How?’’ 

‘‘Oh, buttin’ in about engines, and beggin^ 
you to let me have that aero-catamaran, and 
talkin’ boats, and borrowin’ your map, and pes- 
terin’ you about the Bahamas.” 

“She don’t really believe that, does she? 
Why, Andy, I put all those things in your 
head.” 

“She says we ’re down here on business. 
When we attend to that, we ’re goin ’ back home. 
I ’m sorry we had to bother you at all. I guess 
you can keep the aero-catamaran.” 

The good-natured captain was shaking with 
laughter. 

“Anyway,” he said, at last, with a chuckle, 
“she won’t care if you just look at the engine, 
and you ’d better look at the rowboat I ’m 
goin’ to give you — ” 

“Got orders on that, too. You ’ve done too 
much for us already. I can’t take it.” 

“Can’t, eh?” said the captain quizzically. 
“Why not buy it?” 

The boy had his eyes fixed longingly on a 
staunch, flat-bottomed skiff, painted red, and 
carrying the name Red Bird in white. 

“I don’t know that we can afford it,” he said 
in a hesitating voice. 


A Cruise in the Sky 


35 


‘‘Well, of course, if I sell it, I must have my 
price, ^ ’ went on the amused captain. ‘ ‘ There ’s 
a little leg- 0 ’-mutton sail that goes with her.” 

“What ’s a boat like that worths’ Andy 
asked at last. 

“Well, I ’ll have to figure,” answered his 
elder, puckering his mouth. “The stuff in her 
was secondhand, and I reckon it cost me $1.50. 
Then there was the labor, say two days. We ’ll 
call it a dollar and a half a day — that ’s $4.50 
altogether. And about a quarter for paint — ” 

“And the mast and sail?” suggested Andy. 

“Nothin’,” answered Captain Anderson. 
“The stick fioated in, and the sail ain’t any- 
thing but a scrap.” 

“Could you afford to sell her for $4.75?” 

“I could,” answered the captain, “but it 
wouldn’t be fair. A boat like that won’t last 
over five years, and this one is over two years 
old. She ’s two-fifths gone. Take her for 
three-fifths of $4.75.” 

When the boy had figured that it was $2.85, 
his frown suddenly changed to a smile. 

“Captain,” he exclaimed, “I almost bit. 
You ’re kiddin’ me. I ’d rather take it as a gift 
than offer you $2.85 for a boat like that. No,” 
and his troubled look returned. “Nothin’ doin’ 
in the boat line, either. ’ ’ 


36 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

Captain Anderson made no answer to the 
boy^s statement other than to smile again and 
to throw open the door of the hoathonse. 
Within, and occupying a space about twenty by 
thirty feet, was a combined reading and man’s 
living room, carpenter and machine shop, and 
general repository of all sorts of delightful 
odds and ends. To Andy the big room was 
redolent with a variety of fascinating odors — 
from fresh oak and pine shavings, oakum, pitch, 
and tar — new reminders of boats and the sea. 

In one corner stood a desk, a bookcase 
jammed with volumes of many sizes, a cot, and 
a stove. 

^‘My rainy day corner,” suggested the boy’s 
guide. 

On the opposite side stood two workbenches 
and a foot-J^ower lathe, while, on the benches 
and above them on the wall, were tools of all 
kinds. 

From the rafters, suspended on big wooden 
hooks, hung spars, oars, and strips of many 
kinds of wood. In the midst of these, resting 
on two special racks, were what appeared to 
be two racing shells, each about twenty feet 
long. 

^‘They ’re part of it,” volunteered Captain 


A Cruise in the Sky 


37 


Anderson, as he saw Andy gazing in admira- 
tion at the fragile boats. ‘ ^ They ’re the part of 
the aero-catamaran we made.” 

^‘And the engine?” asked Andy. 

‘‘Over here,” replied the captain. “A little 
rusty, but protected as well as I know how. 
She has n’t turned a wheel in over two years.” 

As he withdrew a tarpaulin cover the boy 
could not restrain himself. He hurst out : 

“Did my uncle make that?” 

“You didn’t suspect I did it, did you?” 
laughed Captain Anderson. 

The boy was already on his knees. He did n’t 
understand boats, but gas engines he did un- 
derstand. For several minutes the excited boy 
hung over the motor ; his fingers moved over its 
perfect parts. Then he sprang to his feet. 

“Do you know what that is. Captain Ander- 
son?” he exclaimed with all his former fervor. 

“Your uncle called it a gas engine. But it 
always struck me as pretty light weight for an 
engine. ’ ’ 

“Did it run all right?” asked the boy. 

‘ ‘ Eun ? ’ ’ repeated the captain. ‘ ‘ She ran like 
a house afire.” 

“If that motor,” said Andy slowly, “is as 
good as it looks, it is a better piece of machin- 


38 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


eiy than anything of the kind ever made in 
America. Why, we send to France for engines 
like that, and pay $2,000 for ’em. Are yon sure 
my uncle made it ? ” 

^‘You ’ll see his shop this morning,” was the 
captain’s only answer. 

^‘He was two years ahead of the rest of the 
world,” said Andy decisively. ‘‘WTiy, it ’s 
almost as light as a Fiat. Eight cylinders and 
water cooled, ’ ’ he went on, as if talking to him- 
self. ‘‘Did he ever say what horse power it 
developed I ’ ’ 

The captain shook his head. 

“Listen to those cylinders!” exclaimed the 
boy, as he tapped them with a pencil. ‘ ‘ Thin as 
a drumhead. Auto-lubricating alloy for bear- 
ings, too,” he added with increasing excitement. 
“And hollow steel tubing instead of solid ^ -as 
— every atom pared away that can be sps^ ed. 
Captain Anderson,” concluded the young ex- 
pert, springing to his feet again, “I ’ll tell you 
what this engine is — it ’s the mosty^erfect aero- 
plane motor ever made ! ” ‘ ■ 

“Aeroplane?” repeated Captain Anderson. 
“Flyin’ machine engine? ’Twasn’t made for 
that. It was made to run a boat.” 

“I don’t care what it was made for; it ’s an 
aeroplane motor and a beauty — ” 


A Cruise in the Shy 


39 


‘‘Will you gentlemen be good enough to come 
to breakfast?’^ 

It was Mrs. Anderson, standing in the boat- 
house door. 

Too excited to respond immediately, Andy 
continued : 

“Why did he make such a light engine, if it 
was for use on a boatT’ 

“Well, here ’s the idea,^^ explained the cap- 
tain, nodding to his wife. “Your uncle lived 
here nearly ten years. Finally he had to take 
to boating. But he hadn’t any more use for 
a sailboat than I have for a power-boat. So he 
rigged up a gasoline engine and a screw on an 
old hull, and began runnin’ aground on every 
bar in the river. That ’s when I had the laugh 
on him, because I knew the channels. At la«' 
he got mad. And one day, he figured out tm/ 
aero-catamaran. Here ’s a plan of it,” added 
the captain, pointing to a scale drawing on the 
wall. 

“It has air propellers!” was Andy’s imme- 
diate exclamation. 

“Sure,” said the captain. “And were 
all right; they made her hump, too.” 

The design showed the two twenty-foot nar- 
row boats (or racing shells) braced together 


40 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

after the manner of East India catamarans. 
On the crosspieces, which afforded a deck space 
seven feet wide, a heavier frame was shown. 
On this, rising something less than a foot above 
the boat gunwales, rested the engine, from 
which a shaft extended sternward. 

Beginning at the engine, and also extending 
aft, was another open frame six feet long and 
seven by seven feet in width and height. 
Shafted on each top rear corner of this frame 
was a six-foot propeller connected with the en- 
gine shaft by chain drives. In front of the en- 
gine the boat braces were decked and here, simi- 
lar to an automobile steering wheel, was a 
wheel from which wires extended to the rudder 
at the stern of each shell. 

‘‘Why ’d you take her apart asked Andy 
at last, his voice full of unmeant rebuke. 

“We didn’t,’^ explained Captain Anderson. 
“We made her just as you see her in the pic- 
ture, and she did what her designer planned, — 
paid no attention to bars and reefs. She even 
gave the Valkaria a black eye, making sixteen 
miles on smooth water. But — ’’ 

“But whatr^ interrupted Andy. 

‘ ‘ Everything was all right but the braces, the 
catamaran part. The first gale that hit her 
twisted her to pieces. ^ ’ 


CHAPTEE ly 


THE SEQUEL OF THE AEEO-CATAMAEAN 

Andy^s busy brain was full of the aero- 
catamaran and the wonderful engine, but, mind- 
ful of his mother ^s admonition, he restrained 
his enthusiasm. It was agreed that all should 
start for the late home of the boy^s eccentric 
uncle as soon as Mrs. Anderson ^s morning work 
was done. 

‘‘We dl use both the little boats, explained 
the generous captain. “I ^11 take the ladies in 
one, and we dl tow the other one with Andy 
and the baggage for cargo. 

The moment breakfast was over Andy man- 
aged to get the captain into the boathouse again 
that he might see the propellers — for he was 
still thinking. These, with the engine shaft, 
chain drives, steering wheel, and rudder wires 
had also been preserved. 

“Are you thinkin^ o^ tryin’ to rig her up 
again? asked the captain, as Andy began a 
close examination of the parts. 

The boy looked up with a doubtful smile. 

41 


42 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


‘‘Yon could/’ added the captain, “but she ’d 
have to be better braced. The trouble was when 
you turned her in a sea. The waves would 
raise one boat and drop the other. The steel 
beams wouldn’t hold.” 

Andy nodded, and carried one of the six-foot 
propellers nearer the door. It was of some 
light, close-grained wood, finished as smoothly 
as glass. The blades, pear-shaped with a de- 
cided pitch, tapered gracefully to the metal 
shaft-block in the center. 

“Where ’d he get these?” asked Andy ad- 
miringly, as he brushed the dust from the 
golden-varnished blades. 

“I ’m a little proud o’ them,” confessed the 
captain. “I made ’em. But they weren’t my 
idea. I never saw anything like ’em until your 
uncle laid ’em out on paper, curves and all.” 

“Wliat ’ll you take for them?” asked the boy 
longingly. 

“Didn’t I tell you all that truck is yours or 
your mother’s, or your father’s?” 

“Did uncle pay you for your work?” 

“Well, to tell the truth, it was n’t a question 
of pay between us, ’ ’ explained the captain. ‘ ‘ It 
was his idea and his boat. I made him a 
present of all I did.” 


A Cruise in the Sky 


43 


‘‘Yon think so, now,’’ said the boy with a 
smile. “But I reckon what ’s here is as much 
yours as it was his — or more. Much obliged 
for the offer, hut I think my mother would 
make a fuss if I took anything.” 

The captain only shrugged his broad shoul- 
ders. In an instant the boy had replaced the 
propeller and was at his new friend’s side. 

“Captain,” he said in almost a whisper, 
“don’t you say a thing to her. But I have an 
idea — and it ’s a dandy. It ’s a big idea, and 
it ’s goin’ to take both you and me to work it 
out — ” 

“Bully for you!” exclaimed the captain. 
“But it ain’t another motor boat, is it?” 

For answer, Andy hurried to the captain’s 
desk and picked up an illustrated paper he had 
seen there. As he held it before the boat 
builder, he placed his finger on one of the pic- 
tures and glanced at his companion with snap- 
ping eyes. 

“A flyin’ machine? An aeroplane?” the cap- 
tain almost shouted. 

For answer, Andy’s hand shot up as if warn- 
ing silence. With the other he pointed toward 
the bungalow. 

“My mother,” he whispered significantly. 


44 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


‘^See thatr’ he continued, pointing to the pic- 
tured propeller. ‘‘And see thatT’ he added, 
indicating the motor. “They are the only hard 
things about an aeroplane. And we Ve got ’em 
both!” 

The captain’s mouth was wide open in amaze- 
ment. He scratched his chin and then suddenly 
asked : 

“Do you know how to make ’em?” 

“Not yet,” answered Andy all aglow, “but 
the man who carved that propeller can build 
anything he wants. I ’ve got a book about 
’em — ‘How to Construct and Operate an 
Aeroplane.’ ” 

Perplexity shone on the captain’s face. 

“Who ’ll fly it?” he asked. 

Andy smiled, and then slowly winked an eye. 

“But your mother?” added the captain. 

“That ’s it,” answered the boy meaningly. 
“You ’re goin’ to make the machine; it ’s goin’ 
to belong to you — which it will. You ’ll have to 
hire me to help. Why not? We ’ll settle the 
flyin’ business when we get to it. How about 
it?” he concluded appealingly. 

His companion shook his head. 

“We ’d need a lot of things we haven’t got 
— or 1 would, ’ ’ and he grinned. 


A Cruise in the Shy 


45 


‘‘We won’t need a thing but what ’s right 
here in sight,” pleaded Andy, “except some 
cloth and steel wire. ’ ’ 

“I suppose we could get them up at Mel- 
bourne — or I could,” conceded the captain, his 
grin broadening into a laugh. 

“Then it ’s a go?” urged Andy. 

“But I don’t see,” argued Captain Ander- 
son in new doubt, “just what benefit an aero- 
plane will be to me if we could make it. ’ ’ 

“What good was the aero-catamaran to you? 
You helped build that.” 

The captain could only laugh outright. 

“I reckon I did it just to be tinkerin’.” 

“Well, you ’ll get tinkerin’ to beat the band 
buildin’ an airship,” exclaimed Andy. “Be- 
sides, there ain’t any law against you takin’ a 
ride in it. ’ ’ 

“Me?” exclaimed the captain. “Me? I ’d 
sail the Valharia from here to the Pacific. But 
I would n’t trust myself ten feet in one o’ these 
sky craft.” 

The boy followed him outside the boathouse. 
They could see Mrs. Anderson and Andy’s 
mother ready for the trip. 

“But I have always been sort o’ interested 
in aeroplanes — at long range. Bring me the 


46 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


book about ’em and I ’ll read up a little,” added 
the captain, locking the doors. 

‘‘Then you ’ll think about it?” persisted the 
boy. 

“Certainly,” was the captain’s answer, “I ’ll 
think about it. But that is n’t promisin’.” 

As Captain Anderson and Andy walked to 
the pier to get the trundle-cart to carry the 
trunks down to the landing, the boy was sur- 
prised to see a colored man sitting on the edge 
of the runway. 

“Hello, Ba,” exclaimed the captain. 
“You’re just in time, if you ’re lookin’ for a 
job to-day.” 

“Yaas, sah, Ise yo’ honey,” replied the 
negro. “Loafin’ don’t git yo’ nothin’ but 
conch meat. ’ ’ 

Andy saw that the man had none of the 
flashiness of most colored men. His cheek 
bones were high, his skin was dusty black, his 
tremendously muscled and unusually long arms 
were in a marked contrast with his short bowed 
legs, and he wore neither hat nor shoes. 

“Go up to the house and get two trunks. 
Then you can row us to Goat Creek.” 

The man was off instantly. 

“Ba?” said Andy. “That ’s a peculiar 
name ! ’ ’ 


A Cruise in the Sky 


47 


Short for Bahama,’^ explained the captain. 
^‘That ’s the only name he has. He ’s a Ba- 
hama man ; turned up here a few years ago, and 
been bangin’ around the river ever since.” 

‘‘Looks as if he might have just stepped out 
of an African jungle.” 

“His father probably did,” was the captain’s 
answer. 

Ba needed no truck for the transfer of the 
trunks. He carried them to the pier, one at a 
time, balanced on his woolly head. Then the two 
ladies were seated in one boat and the other 
was tied astern to carry Andy and the baggage. 
But the negro, being a skilled waterman, took 
the captain’s place in the forward boat and the 
captain joined the boy in the other craft. 

“Isn’t it great, mother?” called out Andy 
from the rear boat. “Let ’s stay all winter.” 

“It is certainly beautiful,” answered his 
mother. “I wish your father could be here. 
But we can’t stay. You must get back to 
school. ’ ’ 

The boy glanced slyly at Captain Anderson 
and drew down his mouth dolefully. 

“We ain’t got any time to waste on this 
thing. Captain. Can’t we start her to-day?” 
he whispered. 


48 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


answered his companion, slowly, 
^‘you can give me the book to-day. I 11 see 
what I can make ont of it. But — ’’ and he 
shook his head again. 

Undaunted by the captain’s hesitation, Andy 
fell into argument. He began with the simplic- 
ity of the aeroplane mechanically, and insisted 
that, aside from the engine and propeller, it 
was even less complex than a bicycle. 

‘‘Why, every boy in the country 11 be makin’ 
’em. You need only some light, strong wood 
and wires, and a few yards o’ varnished cloth, 
and there you are. I ’d take the engine home 
and make one myself this summer, only I know 
mother wouldn’t let me.” 

“Wouldn’t it be sort of underhanded for me 
to make it for you?” 

“Make it for yourself!” stoutly urged the 
boy. “Think of it! I can see her now — sailin’ 
off over that white beach o’ yours like a — a — ” 
Pelican/* suggested the captain. “That ’s 
our bird down here.” 

Pelican — sure!” said Andy. “That’s a 
great name — Captain Anderson’s Pelican, And 
say,” he whispered, leaning forward, “if you ’ll 
do it, so far as mother ’s concerned, I ’ll give my 
promise now never to try to fly in it until she 
says I can.” 


A Cruise in the Sky 


49 


‘‘That seems fair enough,’^ said the man 
scratching his chin thoughtfully. After a few 
moments, a peculiar smile shone on his face. 
Then, very soberly, he said : 

“Young man, did I understand you to say 
you understood something about gas engines ? ’ ^ 

Andy, mystified, opened his mouth. 

“I — ’’ he began. 

“That ’s what I imderstood, ’ ’ said his ques- 
tioner solemnly. “Did I also understand you 
to say you had some knowledge of the theory 
of flying machines f ’ ^ 

Doubly perplexed, Andy’s jaw dropped 
further. 

“I — ” he began once more. 

“Very well,” went on Captain Anderson. 
“Then it ’s all settled. But I can’t pay you 
over a dollar a day, and as money is scarce 
down here, I ’ll have to settle in some other 
way. This is a pretty good boat we ’re riding 
in. It ’s worth about ten dollars. I ’ll give it 
to you, and deliver it in advance, for ten days’ 
labor.” 

A yell rent the air. Mrs. Leighton and Mrs. 
Anderson whirled about regardless of their 
equilibrium. 

“Andrew,” cried his mother, “what ’s the 
matter?” 


50 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

^‘Nothing, mother. Only I Ve just made a 
good bargain. I Ve just bought this boat.^’ 

‘^Bought it?’’ called back his mother. 

‘‘Yes — for ten dollars. We needed it.” 

“And he ’s going to work it out,” explained 
Captain Anderson. “I can use him whenever 
you can spare him.” 

“That ’s very good of you,” responded Mrs. 
Leighton. “But please don’t pay him more 
than he is worth.” 

The only way by which Andy could show his 
gratitude and appreciation was to pat the cap- 
tain affectionately on the arm, and then the 
mouth of Goat Creek was reached. 

A few minutes later Andy was assisting his 
mother up the path leading to the little estate 
of his late uncle, Abner Leighton. Then he 
sprang down the path again to help Ba with the 
trunks. His thoughts were not on oranges, nor 
pineapples, nor his late uncle’s house. Nor 
did he pause to think of the laboratory shop 
and the power generator. A certain red book 
in one of the trunks, “How to Construct and 
Operate an Aeroplane,” blotted out all these. 

“Andrew,” called out his mother, with a 
laugh, “I think I see one thing, already, that 
we ’ll have to do. ’ ’ 


A Cruise in the Shy 


51 


‘‘Wliat ’s that, mother!’’ panted the boy, as 
he tugged at his trunk strap. 

“The house needs painting badly, 
you do that first.” 


I ’ll have 


CHAPTEE V 


THE HOME OF THE ECCENTRIC EXPERIMENTER 

Any lingering interest that Andy might have 
had in his uncle’s place disappeared, tempo- 
rarily, on the spot. He had figured that he 
might have trouble in arranging things so that 
he could help about the place and yet find time 
to help build an aeroplane. To he sentenced 
to ‘‘paint the house” was more than he had 
bargained for. The boy was in despair. 

But as they approached the house, his inter- 
est began to revive. When he saw that his 
uncle’s home was a substantial little building, 
backed by a grove of golden-studded orange 
trees, he began to forget his new trouble. 

The house, two stories high, with a porch or 
gallery on two sides, stood on open ground. 

“From the second story,” explained Captain 
Anderson, “it looks out over the river. You 
can even see the spray of the ocean breakers on 
the other side of the peninsula, sometimes.” 

“The sea?” exclaimed Andy. 

“And miles up and down the river,” replied 
the captain, nodding his head. 

52 


A Cruise in the Sky 


53 


The place contained about twenty acres, of 
which five in the rear were in oranges and one 
in pineapples. On the slope in front was a gar- 
den patch, while the low ground near the creek 
was a swamp. 

‘^It is so much more than I expected,’’ ex- 
claimed Mrs. Leighton at once, ^Hhat I almost 
wish we could keep it and live here.” 

‘‘Do you think we could afford it, mother?” 
Andy began. “I don’t think father will come 
down here.” 

“What is it worth. Captain?” asked Mrs. 
Leighton. 

“About two thousand dollars — ^maybe a little 
less.” 

“Mother,” said Andy, “of course, we ought 
to clean up around here a little, but I don’t 
think we should spend any money on paint or 
repairs until father knows all about it. Let ’s 
write to him.” 

That meant perhaps a week’s reprieve. In 
that time considerable might be done on the 
projected flying machine. 

“We ’ll see,” answered his mother. 

Mrs. Leighton and Andy entered the place 
with great curiosity. The front of the house 
was one living room of undecorated pine. 


54 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

There was a stove standing in a box of sand, 
and a long table, a conch, and bookshelves built 
in the end of the room. A chair at the table and 
a handmade lounging chair with a canvas back 
were the only seating accommodations. 

The table bore a big green-shaded student 
lamp, and was laden with hooks, pamphlets, 
magazines — all in order in little racks — and, in 
the center, a heap of blank books, scratch paper 
pads, dry ink bottles, pens, tobacco jars, pipes, 
matches, and newspaper clippings. On the 
walls, here and there, were attractive colored 
prints. 

On the table Andy noticed several foreign 
magazines and reviews. A large portion of the 
contents of the bookcases were European scien- 
tific magazines. One of these, turned over on 
the table, was a German periodical devoted to 
chemistry. 

On the far side of the room a steep stairway 
led to the second floor. While his elders as- 
cended to the rooms above the hoy opened a 
door in the rear. The scientific publications 
had instantly revived his curiosity concerning 
the shop or workroom. The door led into a 
small, bare room with a door opening on the 
side gallery — evidently a dining room. Beyond 


A Cruise in the Shy 


55 


this, was a kitchen and a door leading out on 
the orange grove. 

A few yards within the grove, the boy found, 
in a clearing, the building that his uncle had 
used as a shop. It was of weather-worn boards, 
and had a tar-paper roof. The windows, on 
two sides of the shed, were almost continuous, 
and protected by shutters. The door, on a win- 
dowless side, was fastened with a padlock. But 
this did not long deter the curious Andy. Many 
kinds of pipe, bars of iron, empty carboys, 
boards, boxes, and barrels of hard and soft coal 
were about the shed. Catching up a piece of 
bar iron, Andy demolished the lock staple with 
a blow. 

The spaces between the board siding had 
been filled in with laths and, as the shutters 
were closed, it was a moment or two before the 
prying visitor could make out his surroundings. 
As he began to do so he knew that Captain An- 
derson ^s suggestions were more than justified. 
He was plainly in the workroom of an experi- 
menter of wide scope. 

The intruder’s first work was to throw open 
the wooden shutters. Then, despite the dust- 
covered windows, he began a quick inventory of 
the place. The side where there were no win- 


56 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

dows looked like the disordered shelves of a 
country drug store. Glass bottles and smaller 
vials, wicker demijohns, and labeled boxes were 
jammed together in confusion. There was an 
acid, mouldy smell about the place, as if sun- 
shine and air had not entered for a long time. 

Beneath the windows on the long side of the 
room was a little workbench such as watchmak- 
ers use. It was littered with tools looking much 
like a watchmaker ^s outfit. In a cleared place 
on it was tacked a sheet of paper, now brown 
with dust. In lead pencil, on this, were chemi- 
cal formulae and algebraical equations. By its 
side was a box of drawing instruments, steel 
rules, drawing curves and dividers, with pens 
and drawing inks. 

‘‘Nothing much doing!’’ chuckled Andy to 
himself, smacking his lips. He reveled in 
places of this character. It meant many pos- 
sible hours of prolonged examination and the 
joy of almost any kind of discovery. 

On the right of this bench was a heavier one 
for metal working, with two vises and a lathe 
operated by shaft and pulley. The shaft ex- 
tended through the side of the room and con- 
nected with a small gasoline engine outside. 

Continuing his hasty survey of the curious 



* * Nothing Much Doing ! * ’ 






r 




> *> ' ^ ' .. 


I 


► t 


1 


I 


^ 

I 




r* 



I • ' • 

♦ . , f 




A Cruise in the Sky 


59 


laboratory, Andy faced the other windowed 
side of the room. Crowded into a comer, he 
made out a portable forge. Next to it, was an 
anvil with hammers, tongs, and bending blocks. 
Next to this was another and still heavier 
bench. 

It was the first close view of this that made 
Andy spring forward as if he had caught sight 
of a bed of gold nuggets. Hereon, plainly 
enough, were the physical expressions of the ec- 
centric experimenter’s peculiar ideas. Metal 
wheels, shafts, springs, cylinders, and pistons 
were heaped together. In front of them was a 
wooden, soot-smeared and oil-begrimed minia- 
ture model of something. The little model had 
somewhat the appearance of a mechanical fan. 
As Andy picked it up, a voice from behind him 
exclaimed : 

‘‘Couldn’t wait, eh?” 

It was Captain Anderson, and he was fol- 
lowed by Mrs. Leighton and Mrs. Anderson. 

“Where ’s that power generator or trans- 
former, or whatever it is?” was Andy’s only 
answer as he replaced the model. 

“Andrew!” exclaimed his mother, as she 
caught sight of the boy, whose face was 
streaked with dust and perspiration, and 


60 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

whose coat was already covered with cobwebs. 
‘‘You Ye ruining your best suit. Come out of 
that dirty place. 

The boy did so, but it was partly because 
Captain Anderson had motioned him around 
the shed. There, beneath a lean-to protection, 
was a fourth bench. On this, even the un- 
trained Andy instantly made out six small 
cylinders connected by steel tubes, in the cen- 
ter of each of which was an arrangement of 
valves and stop cocks. Attached to the first of 
the cylinders was a compact device resembling 
a blower, operated by a hand crank. From 
this, a steel tube led below the bench. 

“DonT ask me what it is,’’ exclaimed Captain 
Anderson. “All I know about it is your 
imcle said that when he got those cylinders 
workin’ right, he ’d have no more use for gas- 
oline. ’ ’ 

“Looks like a new kind o’ compressor,” be- 
gan Andy, his face beaming. “I think I — ” 

“Andy, come right along up to the house and 
help us get things in order,” commaided his 
mother. “Did you ever see so much rubbish?” 
she added, turning to Mrs. Anderson and gath- 
ering up her skirts anew. “All this stutf must 
have cost a lot of money. Is it worth anything 


A Cruise in the Shy 


61 


now?’’ she asked, peering timidly into the dis- 
orderly shop once more. 

‘^The tools are worth something,” answered 
Captain Anderson. ‘^As for the other things, 
I guess they ain’t good for anything except 
junk.” 

They were on their way back to the house, 
Andy tagging behind and thinking. Finally he 
touched the captain on the arm. 

‘‘Don’t you be too sure about that ‘junk’ 
business.” 

“Did you find anything?” asked the captain, 
with a smile. 

“I did n’t,” answered the boy, “but my uncle 
didn’t keep that place goin’ just to kill time. 
You can bet there are ideas buried somewhere 
in that stuff.” 

“And you are goin’ to dig ’em up?” laughed 
Captain Anderson. 

“There ain’t any law against tryin’,” re- 
torted Andy, red in the face, “and if my 
mother tries to sell that shanty or the ‘junk’ in 
it before I ’m through with it, she ’s agoin’ to 
strike a snag.” 

The negro, Ba, had carried the trunks to the 
gallery, where a council was now held. The 
only food in the house was a few tins of fruit 


62 .The Aeroplane Boys Series 

and vegetables and some ant-infested sugar. 
The entire place was much in need of soap, 
water, and broom. The bedding did not meet 
Mrs. Leighton’s approval. Besides, there was 
but one bed in the house. 

The boy’s suggestion to his mother was to 
‘‘camp out” in the house until the next morn- 
ing. There were preserved peaches and tinned 
baked beans in the pantry, to say nothing of 
oranges and pineapples on the place, and these 
Andy thought quite sufficient in the way of 
food. Then, on the following day, they would 
borrow Captain Anderson’s sailboat and go to 
Melbourne to lay in supplies. 

This suggestion receiving no immediate ob- 
jection, the boy began to exercise his growing 
energy in his attack on the disorderly floor of 
the big room. In the midst of this Captain 
Anderson stopped him. 

“You can’t stay here,” explained the elder. 
“Your mother has agreed with us, and you ’re 
going back to our house. ’ ’ 

A look of disappointment spread over the 
boy’s face. Then this changed as he turned to 
his mother. 

“Then you ain’t goin’ to paint the house 
right away?” 

“Not at once,” was the answer. “Captain 


A Cruise in the Shy 


63 


Anderson has kindly offered to let ns board 
with him for a few days until we hear from 
your father. Then, if he wants to sell the 
house, and we can’t do it at once, we may make 
arrangements to come here and live.” 

Although it had been decided to return to 
Captain Anderson’s home, and the trunks were 
carried back to the boat at once, it was nearly 
noon before the party prepared to leave. Two 
hours were spent in looking over the grove and 
the pineapple field, and in a more careful sur- 
vey of the house and its contents. Then Cap- 
tain Anderson prepared to lock the house 
again. 

Don’t that road lead to your house!” asked 
Andy, who had been in new thought for some 
time, addressing the captain. 

‘^Sure,” laughed Captain Anderson, ‘‘want 
to walk! It ’s two miles.” 

“Mother,” asked Andy, “do you mind if I 
stay here awhile ! I ’ll walk back. ’ ’ 

His mother eyed him suspiciously. 

“What are you planning to do!” she asked. 

“Just want to nose around — books and 
things,” he explained. 

“Can he do any harm!” Mrs. Leighton 
asked, with a smile. “I guess it ’s ‘things’ 
more than books.” 


64 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

‘^Let him stay,’’ urged the captain. ^‘The 
place needs all the airing it can get.” 

As soon as Andy saw that his request had 
been granted, he hurried to the boats and 
opened his trunk. He soon extracted a little red 
volume. As the returning party approached, 
he slipped the book to Captain Anderson. 

‘^Captain,” he said quietly, ‘‘here ’s the book 
you wanted to see. I thought you might look 
at it this afternoon. Things are workin’ all 
right,” he added winking slyly. “I ’m on the 
job to begin earning that boat to-morrow — ” 

“What book is that?” interrupted Mrs. 
Leighton, who had her eyes on her son. 

Andy hesitated, but Captain Anderson vol- 
unteered : 

“It ’s a book about aeroplanes. He ’s lend- 
ing it to me.” 

“Aeroplanes?” exclaimed Mrs. Leighton in- 
stantly, turning to her son. Then, looking at 
the captain, she added : “ I hope you ’ll keep it, 
Captain Anderson. Andy wasted one whole 
summer on an engine that won’t work. We 
don’t need any aeroplanes of the same kind.” 
Turning to Andy again, she said : “ Be sure and 
be at Captain Anderson’s by five o’clock — and 
take in all that bedding before you leave.” 


CHAPTER VI 


AN UNFINISHED LETTER SOLVES A MYSTERY 

Before the boats disappeared, Andy was 
hurrying np the hill. 

^ ^ Talk about your hidden treasure ! ’ ’ said the 
boy to himself. ‘^Lookin’ for concealed ideas 
beats it all hollow. Now for the steel cylin- 
ders — ^whatever they are.’’ 

Passing the pump in the rear of the house, 
he realized that he was thirsty, and that re- 
minded him that he was hungry. He thought 
first of the canned peaches and beans. Then he 
recalled the ripe oranges and pineapples. Ten 
minutes later, his face and fingers redolent of 
the combined juice of the two fruits, he was 
ready for his inviting investigation. 

Throwing off his hat and coat, he sought, 
first, the bench behind the shop. He secured 
wrenches and screw-drivers and loosened some 
of the parts of the six cylinder machine. But, 
after all, he had to shake his head. 

‘‘Looks as if it is almost something,” he 
mused. “And it looks too as if it had nearly 
65 


66 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

worked. But I reckon it didn’t. And, if my 
uncle couldn’t make it go, what ’s the use o’ 
my tryin’?” 

Plainly it was a gas accumulator or con- 
denser of some kind. It even suggested an at- 
tempt to make a device for liquefying gases. 
The parts were so rusted that even after oiling 
them, Andy could not operate them. 

’ll pass that up for to-day,” thought the 
boy finally, his face wet with perspiration and 
his hands greasy with oil and brown from the 
rust. ^‘Now for the little model!” 

He had a theory about the cylinders, but he 
had none about the model. In appearance, it 
resembled a wooden fan that the boy had once 
seen — a fan made by slitting half of a bit of 
straight-grained pine and then spreading the 
slit sections out like over-lapping feathers. In 
a way, too, it resembled a bird’s tail. The de- 
vice to which the fan-like pieces were attached 
was so contrived as to open and close the tail- 
like extension. 

Andy carried the contrivance into the sun- 
light and carefully cleaned it. Then, by grasp- 
ing the central wooden shaft with a pair of 
pliers, he found he was able to turn it. A little 
brass cogwheel on the shaft operated in two 


A Cruise in the Sky 


67 


smaller wheels, one on each side. These, work- 
ing on a beveled gear, moved levers simulta- 
neously but in opposite directions. It required 
but a few minutes to discover that turning the 
shaft to the right drew down the fan-like blades 
on the right-hand side of the tail-like part and, 
at the same time, elevated those on the left- 
hand side. 

“I guess it ’s a toy,’’ argued the boy. 

Maybe the inside of an automatic bird. Any- 
way, it works just as a bird spreads its tail 
when flying.” 

Further examining the miniature combina- 
tion of wood and brass, Andy made another 
discovery : the shaft not only turned both ways, 
but it, the beveled gears, and the connecting 
levers, worked forward and back. As the boy 
pushed the shaft backward, all the sheaves of 
the tail-like extension flew upward. 

‘‘It is a bird,” exclaimed Andy. “It moves 
like a pigeon’s tail when the bird starts flying.” 

Pulling the shaft forward, reversed the ope- 
ration, and the sheaves dropped downward. 

“There she is cornin’ down,” the boy cried 
aloud. “I ’ve got it. It ’s a new kind o’ boat 
rudder. ’ ’ 

What increased the resemblance to a bird’s 


68 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

tail was another ingenious device — two rows of 
small cones just above and below the narrow 
ends of the sheaves. Each blade, working upon 
a universal hinge, was free to move to the right 
and left. As they rose or fell under the pres- 
sure of the shaft, they pressed on the cones and 
spread out, fanwise. 

Then came the crowning discovery. The 
shaft could be moved forward or back and 
turned at the same time. As Andy pushed it 
backward and gave it a twist to the right, the 
feather-like leaves depressed, assumed a diag- 
onal line and spread out like a bird darting to 
the earth. 

‘‘Old junk, is itT’ muttered the boy, as he 
carried the model into the shop again. ‘ ‘ Maybe 
so. But, junk or not, I dl bet there ’s never 
been anything like that made before. And I ’m 
goin’ to find out what it ^s for.’’ 

Although Andy had only partly investigated 
the fascinating mystery of the shop, he sud- 
denly determined to have another look at the 
contents of the house. He was excited, hot, and 
dust-covered. Passing through the dining 
room, an unopened bottle of lime juice in the 
cupboard caught his eye. 

“Might as well refresh myself,” chuckled 


A Cruise in the Shy 


69 


Andy, with a boy’s hot-weather thirst. ‘‘A lit- 
tle Florida ^cup’ is just about my size on a day 
like this,” he went on; and rushing out to the 
grove, he secured three oranges and a small 
pineapple. A big glass pitcher was filled with 
fresh water. Into this, using his pocketknife, 
Andy sliced the fruit, and then on it poured a 
cup of lime juice, after which he took up the 
sugar box. It was alive with ants. 

Spreading a newspaper on the table, the boy 
poured out a quantity of sugar. The ants did 
not abandon their banquet. They rolled out 
with the sugar. The boy scratched his head. 
Then he tried to chase the ants away. They 
were not easily chased. He got a little stick 
and began pushing them off the sugar. They 
went off one side and returned on the other. 
From scratching his head, Andy fell to rubbing 
his chin. Then he had a great thought. 

^‘I ’ll drown ’em,” he said to himself. 

Finding a shallow dish, the thirsty boy 
poured the sugar into it. The ants clung to 
their feast. He ran to the pump with the dish 
and filled it with water. The persistent ants 
were defeated. Those that did not escape the 
deluge by hasty flight were drowned at once, 
victims of their appetites. In a few moments. 


70 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

tlie top of the syrupy bath was thick with over- 
come ants. A few sweeps of the surface with 
his hand, and Andy was free of his enemies. 

“An’ I ’ve got all the sugar without a speck 
o’ ants,” he chuckled again. 

Dumping the sweetening into the pitcher the 
boy stirred up the mess. 

“It tastes awful good,” he said to himself, 
“but it ’s kind o’ sweet.” 

Just then a big brown ant floated out from 
under a raft-like slice of pineapple. 

“But I reckon plain water ’s pretty good on 
a hot day,” he added less enthusiastically. 
Dropping the pitcher of Florida ‘cup,’ Andy 
hastened to the pump and took a deep drink of 
pure water. 

Eef reshed, he began systematically examin- 
ing the living room. The bookshelves afforded 
a rich mine. From these, he advanced to the 
table where, manifestly, his uncle had done his 
reading and writing. 

There was scarcely a thing here that did not 
give Andy a new thrill of joy. Everything 
seemed covered with writing or figures ; sheets 
of paper, record books, piles of letters, engi- 
neering cross-ruled paper. One after another 
was put aside for later examination. 


A Cruise in the Sky 


71 


Then Andy came unexpectedly upon that 
which afterwards meant so much to him: the 
instant explanation of the puzzle of the little 
model. Opening a pad of letter paper, he saw 
written in a careful hand, several pages ad- 
dressed to Mr. Octave Chanute, of Chicago. 

Andy knew Mr. Chanute by reputation to be 
a skilled engineer and the father of airship ex- 
periments in America. He knew that it was 
Mr. Chanute ’s experiments with kites and glid- 
ers on the sand dunes of Indiana that had first 
interested the Wright brothers, and the boy 
glowed with pride to know that his uncle had 
been in correspondence with such a man. 

The letter that the boy found he read breath- 
lessly — it was dated at least two weeks before 
his uncle ^s death — and had not been mailed be- 
cause it had not been finished. When the boy 
had read it twice and then stood, his eyes wide 
and his heart throbbing wildly, he made the 
resolution that he never wavered from, that 
turned the possibility of the making of an aero- 
plane into an insistent determination out of 
which came the Pelican in which Andy had his 
great adventure and in which he sought to 
solve, and did solve the mystery of the Great 
Pink Pearl. 


72 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

The momentous letter read; 

^ ^ My deae Me. Chanute ; 

‘‘lam glad you received safely the report of 
my observations on bird flight in this region. 
As I told you, I spent three days in the vicinity 
of Pelican Island making notes on, and photo- 
graphs of, the movements of these birds in the 
air. I hope the report will be of some assist- 
ance to you in your inquiry into the problem of 
‘soaring birds.’ One thing we all know, and 
that is that birds do rise or soar at times with- 
out any apparent movement of wings, tail, or 
feathers. How this is done is, of course, a 
puzzle to us all. Your theory that even in seem- 
ingly calm weather, when there is no noticeable 
agitation of the atmosphere, there may be a 
vertical column of rising air induced by imper- 
ceptible movements of the lower atmosphere, 
may be the explanation. 

“I believe, as you do, that when we have 
found the explanation of how a bird ascends 
without the use of its wings, we will have made 
the longest step in conquering man-flight in the 
air. 

“While it has no bearing on your present 
line of investigation, I cannot resist telling you 


A Cruise in the Shy 


73 


that the observations yon asked me to make for 
you have greatly interested me in the subject 
of aviation in general. Always a dabbler in 
physics and fond of experimenting, I have been 
led into working out an idea of my own. While 
watching the flight of birds, I could not but be 
astonished at the wide difference between their 
tail motions and the rear rudder or tail of the 
aeroplanes as I have observed them in maga- 
zine pictures. 

was so much impressed by this lack of re- 
semblance that I yielded to the temptation to 
try to adapt the natural apparatus of the bird 
to man^s artificial flyer. I have even made a 
small model of a guiding tail or rudder for 
aeroplanes, patterned as nearly as practicable 
after a bird^s tail. Of course, I have no means 
of knowing how such an apparatus will work, 
but later I mean to send you some drawings, 
that you are at liberty to utilize as you see fit. 

‘‘These drawings will explain themselves. 
My object has been to secure a guiding con- 
trivance that will not only alter the course of 
an aeroplane, but will at the same time equal- 
ize the darting tendency that I understand al- 
ways follows a sudden turn to right or left. 
With it, I hope to lessen the need of flexing the 


74 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

main planes of the machine when the rear rud- 
der is used, a large part of the tendency to dart 
being absorbed, in theory at least, by the double 
action of my bird-tail rudder. The moving ma- 
chine I hope may not only be steered up or 
down, or right and left, but one motion of the 
shaft will give the two movements which now 
must be made independently.’’ 

Here the letter came to an abrupt end. 

‘ ^ I knew it ! ” shouted Andy. ‘ ‘ I knew it was 
a rudder of some kind. It ain ’t all clear to me 
yet. But one thing is clear enough. I can make 
a copy of that model. If it works, I ’ll finish 
that letter. But, if it does, the plans of it 
aren’t goin’ to anyone ^to do as he likes’ with 
’em. I ’ll have her patented.” 

Leaving the doors open, Andy raced through 
the house, and in a moment or two had again 
disappeared within the shop in the grove. 


CHAPTEE VII 


THE FIRM OF LEIGHTON & ANDERSON IS FORMED 

When the coming night fairly forced the en- 
thusiastic boy from the shop, which he closed 
and made secure by driving the lock staple into 
the door jam again, Andy was a curious sight. 
With his coat on his arm, his shirt wet with 
perspiration, his hat and trousers smeared with 
dust, oil, and rust, his hands black and his 
knuckles , bleeding from handling iron, wood, 
and tools — all of which he inspected, felt of, 
and stowed away again — he looked more like 
a helper in a machine shop than a newly-arrived 
Florida tourist. 

By the time he reached the railroad on his 
way home, it was dark. The sight of an ap- 
proaching lantern did not reassure him. When 
he saw that it was Captain Anderson, he broke 
out at once: 

‘^It ’s all settled! I donT care about that 
gas accumulator or compressor, or whatever it 
is — we Ve got her tail ! ^ ^ 

75 


76 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

“Her queried the captain. “Whose 

tail?^^ 

‘ ‘ WTiy, the airship, ’ ’ sang out Andy. “We ’re 
goin’ to have the best one ever made. We Ve 
got a tail for it — a guider. Did you read the 
book?” 

“Never mind about that now,” admonished 
the captain. “You ’d better be thinkin’ of some 
good reason why you stayed so long. Your 
mother ’s a good deal put out. 

“I Ve been a lookin’ over things,” explained 
the boy. “My uncle must ’a been a wonder. 
That little model is the greatest invention of 
the age — ” 

“You ’d better invent a model of an excuse 
for your mother.” 

“What ’s the matter?” 

“Your mother had an idea that an alligator 
might have eaten you. ’ ’ 

But Andy’s look of disgust disappeared in 
the other things he had on his mind. 

“How about it?” he persisted. “Are we 
goin’ to make the flyin’ machine?” 

“That ’s quite a job,” answered the captain. 
“But I ’ve been reading your book.” 

^ ^ Could n ’t you do it ? ” exclaimed Andy. 

“I reckon I could,” conceded Captain 
Anderson. 


A Cruise in the Sky 


77 


won’t need the rudder that you see in 
the book,” broke in the boy. ‘‘The thing I ’m 
tellin’ you about is goin’ to take its place. I ’ll 
make it up there in my uncle ’s shop. ’ ’ 

“If — said the captain, with a smile. 

“If what?” asked Andy, alarmed. 

“If your mother ’ll let you,” was his friend’s 
reply. 

Andy was silent a moment as the two hurried 
forward toward the house. Finally, with de- 
cision, he exclaimed : 

“Well, she will. It ’ll be a shame if she 
don’t.” 

Captain Anderson seemed amused, but not 
wholly convinced. 

“I kind o’ glanced through the book, and I 
was sort o’ plaimin’ if I had the stuff — ” 

“And haven’t you?” 

“Pretty much all, I guess.” 

“Then you are goin’ to do it; you will, won’t 
you?” pleaded the lad. 

“Are you certain that engine ’s all right?” 

“Sure,” shouted the boy; “why not? And 
I ’ll make the tail rudder! Hurrah!” 

The captain laid his hand on Andy’s arm. 

“Don’t get excited. I don’t want to do any- 
thing your mother might not like — ” 


78 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

‘‘You leave that to me/’ said the boy. 
“She ’ll agree — in the end.” 

But it looked as if Andy might have a pretty 
hard time placating his parent, judging by 
his reception. Mrs. Leighton was genuinely 
alarmed, but supper being ready and it being 
apparent to the eye that her son was uninjured 
by alligators, her pent-up lecture gradually less- 
ened into a mild criticism. When the boy, with 
clean face and plastered hair, joined the others 
at the table, Mrs. Leighton postponed further 
admonition. 

Mrs. Anderson’s Indian River oysters baked 
in the shell were sufficient to put everyone in 
a good humor. To Andy’s great relief, his 
mother announced that she had devoted the 
afternoon to writing letters : one to Mr. Leigh- 
ton ; another to the bank in Melbourne, in rela- 
tion to her late brother’s affairs; and a third to 
a man in the same town who, her host had in- 
formed her, was a possible purchaser. 

“Until I hear from your father,” she in- 
formed her son, “we will do nothing.” 

Andy nodded approvingly, but there was 
much secret joy that he did not have to return 
at once; that he was free, for a time, to get his 
great project under way. The next thing was 


A Cruise in the Sky 


7 ^ 


to acquaint his mother with the aeroplane idea 
and to work himself into the scheme without 
arousing his mother’s objection. As he ate, his 
brain was busy with a dozen ideas. They were 
rejected one after another, because each called 
for deception. 

Finally, with no definite idea in mind, he re- 
peated the story of the rudder model. With a 
wealth of detail and a dramatic climax, the boy 
worked his narrative up to the unmailed letter. 

‘‘And what makes me sorry,” he concluded, 
“is that there it is, the very thing all flyin’ ma- 
chines need most. And nothin’ to come of it.” 

“Why, that ought to be a patent,” suggested 
Mrs. Anderson. 

“A patent!” repeated Mrs. Leighton. 
“Maybe there ’s a fortune in it.” 

“Yes,” remarked Andy. “But maybe it 
won’t do what uncle figured it will. A thing 
that won’t work ain’t much good if it is 
patented. ’ ’ 

“We ought to try it,” declared Captain An- 
derson earnestly. Then he added: “Let me 
have the model, Mrs. Leighton, and I ’U make a 
full-sized working copy.” 

“I ’m sure that would be putting yon to a lot 
of trouble,” replied that lady. 


80 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

Besides,’’ interposed Mrs. Anderson, ‘‘how 
are you going to test it after you get it ? ” 

“Well,” Captain Anderson answered at last, 
“it looks to me as if it might be worth the 
trouble of a real test, even if I had to make a 
machine to test it.” 

“You don’t mean an aeroplane?” broke in 
Mrs. Leighton. 

“They ’re very simple,” answered the cap- 
tain, shrugging his shoulders. 

“All that work to test a little model!” ejacu- 
lated Andy’s mother. “All that trouble to see 
if an idea is worth anything ! ’ ’ 

“It would be some trouble,” explained the 
captain, “but you don’t get anything without 
some trouble — ” 

‘ ‘ I can help him, mother, ’ ’ interrupted Andy, 
trying to suppress his eagerness. 

But Mrs. Leighton shook her head, and the 
boy’s hopes died. Then his mother turned to 
the captain with a suggestion. 

“I could n’t consent to that,” she began, “be- 
cause Andy is too young to give much assist- 
ance. But, if you ’ll let Mr. Leighton pay 
you — ” 

“I ’ll tell you what we can do,” exclaimed 
the boy, with new hope. “Let ’s go havers. If 


A Cruise in the Sky 


81 


Captain Anderson can make a thing out of that 
model that will guide an aeroplane, it ’ll surely 
be worth something. Let ’s all go partners : 
we ’ll take half because it ’s uncle’s idea, and 
Captain Anderson ’ll take half because he 
works it out.” 

Mrs. Leighton looked questioningly at her 
host. 

^ ^ That ’s fair enough, ’ ’ answered the captain. 
‘‘But there ’s one objection. I don’t know 
much about engines. Andy knows all about 
’em — ” 

“He knows a lot about one that won’t run,” 
recalled his mother with a smile. 

“He knows enough,” observed Captain An- 
derson significantly. “If you can spare Andy 
for a week or so to help me, I ’ll go partners, 
and we ’U see what we can do.” 

“I ’m sure that is awfully good of you,” ex- 
claimed Mrs. Leighton, ‘ ‘ and if you really think 
Andy can be of assistance, why, of course — ” 

“But who ’s going to fly the thing?” broke in 
Mrs. Anderson. “Not you,” she added, nod- 
ding toward her husband. 

Andy’s heart sank. 

“It ’ll be time enough to bother about that 
when we need an operator,” laughed her 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


husband. ‘ ‘ What ’s the matter with Ba ? He ’s 
afraid of nothing.’^ 

‘^And sail away to the Bahamas, maybe, re- 
plied Mrs. Anderson. 

The possibility of Andy becoming the aviator 
seemed not to have occurred to Mrs. Leighton. 
At her silence, the boy could hardly restrain a 
yell of delight over the adroit way in which 
Captain Anderson had managed the thing. As 
he half rose from the table, Mrs. Anderson’s 
words fell on his ears. 

‘‘Sail away to the Bahamas!” 

He dropped back into his chair, his mouth 
open. 

“What ’s the matter, Andy?” asked his 
mother. 

“Matter?” repeated the boy absently. 

“Yes. What is the matter with you? Are 
you ill?” 

“111?” repeated Andy with a smile. “No. I 
was just thinkin’.” 

‘ ‘ Thinking ? About what ? ’ ’ 

“Just thinkin’ how funny that ’d be — old Ba 
asailin’ back to his home in the Bahamas in an 
aeroplane. ’ ’ 

Mrs. Leighton, with a curious look at Andy, 
at last turned to Captain Anderson and said : 


A Cruise in the Shy 


83 


It will be awfully good of you to do that, 
and I dl make Andy do all he can to help you. 
Only,’’ and she smiled, ‘‘I hope, if you make an 
aeroplane, you ’ll promise you won’t try to sail 
it and that you won’t let Mr. Ba risk himself 
in it.” 

’ll promise,” replied Captain Anderson 
with a laugh. ‘‘And now, if the ladies will ex- 
cuse us, I think I ’ll go over to the boathouse 
and have a pipe, and Andy can come along to 
talk over the project. You aren’t too sleepy, 
are you?” he added mischievously. 

“I am pretty tired,” answered Andy, with a 
yawn, “but I ’d like to come for a little while.” 

When the man and the boy had left the house, 
Andy, instead of shouting for joy, said to his 
companion very soberly: 

“Captain Anderson, do you think I ’ll ever 
get a chance to sail that aeroplane?” 

“What else are we makin’ it for?” grunted 
the elder. 

About half past ten, Mrs. Leighton and Mrs. 
Anderson appeared at the door of the boat- 
house. Captain Anderson and Andy, coatless, 
the former with his exhausted pipe in his mouth, 
were leaning over a drawing board and talking 
in low tones. 


84 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


‘‘I thought you only wanted a pipe/’ began 
Mrs. Anderson. 

^^And I thought you were tired/’ added Mrs. 
Leighton. 

^‘Here she is,” exclaimed Captain Anderson, 
rising and exhibiting the drawing board on 
which Andy had roughly drawn the model of 
his uncle’s rudder, ^Hhe celebrated ‘Aeroplane 
bird-tail rudder, patent applied for, manufac- 
tured by Leighton & Anderson, Valkaria, 
Florida.’ ” 

‘ ‘ I hope it is n ’t another aero-catamaran, ’ ’ 
commented Mrs. Anderson, with a smile. 

As the ladies returned to the house and Andy 
prepared to close the boathouse, he paused a 
moment. 

“Do you think he could. Captain Anderson?” 

“Who could what?” 

“Do you think Ba, or anyone else, could fly 
to the Bahamas in an aeroplane?” 

“I don’t know whether they could or not,” 
answered the captain, blowing out the light, 
“but I do know that ’d be my idea of a real fool 
trick. ’ ’ 

“Captain Anderson,” continued Andy, as 
they walked slowly toward the house, “I ’ve 
just been trjdn’ to figure cut all that ’s hap- 


A Cruise in the Sky 


85 ' 


pened since we saw your lantern cornin’ to meet 
us last night. Our engine may not go, and the 
bird-tail rudder may not work, and the aero- 
plane we ’re goin’ to make may not fly, but I 
reckon I ’ve found one thing in the time we ’ve 
been here that there ain’t agoin’ to be anything 
wrong about. ’ ’ 

^^What ’s that?” asked the good-natured 
boat builder. 

^‘You,” answered Andy promptly. 


CHAPTER VIII 


ANDY FIRST HEARS OF KING CAJOU 

Before ten o’clock the next morning, Andy, 
|With the savage-looking Ba rowing the little 
Red Bird, had been to the Leighton cottage on 
Goat Creek, and was hack with the model of the 
bird-tail guide and a box of special metal-work- 
ing tools. By noon the projected aeroplane was 
under way. 

While daylight lasted. Captain Anderson and 
his assistant applied themselves to selecting 
timber, roughing out the frame of the flying 
machine, with frequent conferences. Prom 
Andy’s handbook, dimensions were readily se- 
cured, and that evening a working sketch of the 
car was made. 

The following morning, Andy began a search 
^or batteries. Those found at his uncle’s cot- 
tage were practically exhausted. There was 
'much that the boy would have to do at the forge 
in his uncle’s shop in the way of metal work, 
but he was anxious that the batteries should be 
secured to test the engine. 

86 


A Cruise in the Shy 


87 


‘‘We ’ll have to get cloth, too, for covering 
the planes. We ought to have balloon silk, but 
that is out of the question. Good muslin will 
do — we ’ll waterproof it — know how — alum 
and sugar of lead, equal parts in warm 
water — ” 

“I ’m afraid we have n’t muslin enough,” in- 
terrupted the captain. 

“Certainly not,” exclaimed the boy, “nor 
alum, nor sugar of lead, nor batteries. So I ’ll 
go to Melbourne this afternoon and get ’em — 
it ’s only eight miles. I can he back this 
evening — ” 

“There ’s a nice breeze,” volunteered the 
captain, “and it ’s abeam. We ’ll have Ba sail 
the Valkaria, and you can take your mother 
and Mrs. Anderson. ’ ’ 

“Won’t you come along?” asked the boy, 
overjoyed, but feeling a little guilty. 

“When I get set on a job,” answered the in- 
dustrious captain, “I like to keep agoin’. I 
ain’t goin’ to let this one get cold on my hands. 
We ’ve got to have those things, so hurry along 
and get ’em.” 

By one o ’clock, the supply expedition set sail, 
with a long list of needed material. In a half 
hour, Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Leighton being 


88 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


comfortably busy with their fancy work well up 
in the bow, Andy found opportunity to inter- 
view the mysterious Ba. 

‘‘Ba,’’ he began, ^‘didn’t you like it over 
there in the Bahamas?’’ 

^‘Didn’ Ah like it? Ah liked it all right in 
de big town — Ah liked it in Nassau, but dey 
ain’t gwine ’low me stay dar.” 

“Why not?” 

“ ’Case I done had my trial.” 

“What did you do?” 

“Me? Ah don’ do nuthin’. Me an’ Robert 
was in de sisal fiel’ and dar was de machete. 
Dis Robert he done say de machete was hissen. 
An’ I done rutch ober and tuck it to gib it to 
him. An’ Robert he riz up an’ cut hissef on de 
neck. Ah don’ do nuthin’.” 

“Then what?” urged the interested boy. 

“De big judge he jes look at me, an’ den dey 
put me in de jail.” 

“And you served your term?” 

“Ah don’ know nothin’ ’bout dat. But Ah 
pushed de bars out an’ Ah corned away.” 

“Didn’t you have a home?” asked Andy. 

Ba shook his head, and his eyes widened. 

“I ain’t gwine back to no out islands.” 

“Out islands?” repeated Andy. “What are 
they?” 


A Cruise in the Sky 


89 


But Ba made no answer. He looked at the 
boy with narrowed eyes, and then gave his 
attention to the flying boat. After a few mo- 
ments, still ignoring the boy’s question, the 
strange black man, without facing Andy and in 
a new tone, said in a low voice : 

^^You ain’t nebber gwine on dat Timbado 
Key, is you?” 

‘‘Timbado Key?” asked Andy. “Where ’s 
that?” 

The slow-spoken Bahaman made no answer. 

“Was that your home?” suggested the lad. 

Again there was no immediate reply. Then, 
suddenly, in a whisper, the black said ; 

“Dat ’s fetich. You ain’t gwme dar?” 

The boy nodded his head reassuringly. He 
knew what “fetich” meant — the African’s sign 
of ill-omen. Alarmed over a fetich! Finally 
he went forward and asked Mrs. Anderson 
what she knew about the blacks of the Bahamas. 

She told him that they were mostly descended 
from real Africans; that, in the days when 
slave stealing was being practised, it was the 
custom when slavers were caught by English or 
American men-of-war, to liberate the victims 
on the tropic Bahamas. 

“There may be old men there now,” she 


90 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

said, ‘‘who were born in the wilds of Africa. 
And the second and third generation are not 
much more civilized. Ba is probably almost as 
much African as if he were living in the 
Congo,” she concluded. 

“Where is Timbado Key?” asked Andy. 

Mrs. Anderson shook her head. “All the 
Bahama Islands, except Providence, are ‘out 
islands.’ This must be one of the smaller ‘out 
islands.’ I never heard of it.” 

WTien the boy returned to the stem he again 
attempted to learn from Ba why Timbado was 
fetich, and where it was. But there was only 
blankness on the boatman’s immobile face. In 
a short time, Andy was to know a great deal 
about Timbado Key, but for the time he had to 
restrain his curiosity. 

In Melbourne, Andy was greeted by a clerk 
from the general store. He had a message 
received by telephone from Captain Anderson. 
In addition to the things the boy was to get, 
there was a new list, which included more 
straight-grained and knotless pine. 

The rather delicate question of who was to 
pay for the needed material might have embar- 
rassed the boy and his mother had not Captain 
Anderson made it easy by assuming half the 


A Cruise in the Sky 


91 


expense as a partner and insisting on paying 
for the other half until Mr. Leighton could send 
a check for it. 

The aeroplane architects were most anxious 
to secure a quantity of No. 12 piano wire for 
bracing the aeroplane, but as there was none 
available, Andy took an entire roll of the same 
size in plain steel. The next anxiety was that 
they might not be able to find needed tum- 
buckles for tightening the bracing wires. The 
store had a few — a little larger than absolutely 
necessary — and the town boatmaker had, fortu- 
nately, enough more to fill out Andy’s list. 

He searched the town for shoemaker’s twist, 
but shoemaking seemed to have gone out of 
style, and he had to content himself with what 
approximated it, a skein of fine thread-like 
linen cord used by fishermen in making nets. 
As he could not get shoemaker’s wax to wax it, 
he bought a cake of beeswax. 

The selecting of the wood screws, which had 
to be of various and exact sizes, was a task 
that Andy relegated to the storekeeper while he 
visited the lumber yard. 

‘‘Spruce is really what we want,” explained 
the boy to the proprietor, who also ran the liv- 
ery stable, “but we ’ll have to use pine — ” 


92 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


^‘Spruce?” exclaimed the dealer. ‘‘Then 
I ’m your boy, if this ’ll do. ’ ’ He led Andy to 
a bundle of boards, 2x2 stuff, and some thin 
rib-like slats. “This is spruce.” 

“How ’d you happen to have that down 
here?” exclaimed Andy. 

“I Ve had it two years,” answered the man. 
“I got it ffcr two college boys from Boston, who 
were going to make two racin’ shells. But they 
didn’t make nothin’ but a lot of bills and some 
quick tracks.” 

“I ’ll take it all,” broke in Andy, highly 
elated. 

By five o’clock, the Valharia was consider- 
ably lower in the water. With a fine burst of 
generosity, Andy conducted his mother and 
Mrs. Anderson back to the store, regaled them 
with some not over cold pop and a box of choco- 
lates, bought a can of smoking tobacco and some 
new magazines for the captain, and with a 
couple of two-for-a-nickel cigars for Ba, as- 
sisted the ladies aboard the boat. 

Ba was all smiles over the cigars. He ap- 
peared all smiles over something else, too. 

“What ’s doin’, Ba?” joked Andy. 

“Ain’t nothin’ doin’,” replied Ba, licking his 
cigar preliminary to lighting it. “Leastways, 
ain’t no wind. She ’s a dead cam.” 


A Cruise in the Shy 


93 


‘‘Why, so it is,’’ exclaimed Mrs. Anderson, 
“and here it is five o’clock. Do you think it ’ll 
freshen up later, Ba?” she went on, with some 
concern. 

“Ain’t gwine be no win’ dis eben. Miss An- 
derson,” was Ba’s verdict, as he rolled out an 
odorous volume of smoke. 

“What in the world shall we do?” cried Mrs. 
Leighton. 

Mrs. Anderson laughed. 

“There isn’t any train, and we can’t walk. 
Ba,” she said to the happy Bahaman, “you ’ll 
have to pole us home.” 

The obedient darkey, without any great 
gusto, however, began unlashing two long poles 
that were made fast to the deck alongside the 
washboard. Andy understood. 

“Can you do that?” he asked. “Is the river 
shallow enough?” 

“The Indian Eiver is like a lot of people,” 
answered Mrs. Anderson, laughing. “It ’s not 
anyways as deep as it looks. And Captain An- 
derson has one weakness — he ’ll never leave his 
boat if he goes sailing. He ’ll come home in it 
if he has to push it every foot of the way. 
That ’s why we ’ve got the poles.” 

Ba had already cast off and (having extin- 


94 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

guished his cigar and stowed it away in his 
pocket), was getting the Valkaria under way. 
As the boat began to move, he walked along the 
deck gangway to the bow, and dropping the end 
of his twelve-foot pole to the bottom, rested the 
other end against his shoulder and began to 
walk aft. As he did so, the boat moved forward 
under the pressure of Ba’s feet. 

‘^Great!’’ shouted Andy, catching up the 
other pole. ‘‘That ’s fun. We ’ll get you home 
quicker ’n a couple o’ canal boat mules.” 

Ba did not protest. Showing Andy how to 
alternate with him so that one of them was 
pushing forward while the other was returning 
to the how, the colored man and the eager boy 
soon had the little yacht moving on her course. 

Andy’s black and blue shoulder was good 
proof the next day that he did his share. Ba 
crooned the songs of the “out islands” when 
the time dragged, and at last, after eight 
o’clock, Mrs. Anderson detected the pin-point 
light of the lantern she knew Captain Anderson 
would hang on the end of the pier. 

The captain, receiving the tired stragglers 
with many a joke, showed his skill as a cook in 
the hot supper he had ready. The evening meal 
disposed of, it was a new pleasure to Andy, in 


A Cruise in the Shy 


95 


spite of his stiff limbs and sore shoulder, to 
help carry the aeroplane material to the boat- 
house, and almost a supreme happiness to sit 
in the light of the rising moon and recoimt all 
his experiences to his friend. 

After a time, Andy went into the house and 
soon returned with the captain’s chart of the 
Bahamas. Spreading it out on the desk, the 
boy began studying it intently. 

‘‘Got it again?” asked the captain laughing. 
“Well, I don’t blame you. They ’re curious 
islands — ” 

“Where ’s Timbado Key?” interrupted 
Andy. 

“Timbado? Oh, I see! Old Ba has loosened 
up. That ’s Ba ’s notion of a good place to keep 
away from.” 

“Why?” asked the boy quickly. “fle 
wouldn’t tell me.” 

“Nor me,” answered the captain, freshly 
charging his pipe. “I ’ve heard it ’s a place 
colored men never go back to a second time and 
that white men never go to even once. ” 

Andy dropped the map, and Captain Ander- 
son walked over and picked it up. He pointed 
to a nameless speck on the southern edge of the 
Bahama Banks. 


96 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


’s about here/’ he indicated. ‘‘They told 
me over on Andros Island, when I put in there 
two years ago, that if you want to see real Afri- 
can savagery, you don ’t need to cross the ocean 
— ^just go to Timbado. ’ ’ 

Andy’s eyes dilated. 

“At other places there are white men, Eng- 
lishmen and Americans, growin’ fruit and 
spongin’ and fishin’, hut on Timbado, there ’s 
nothin’ doin’.” 

“What do you mean?” interrupted the boy. 

“Well,” went on the captain, “they say, 
mind you I just say they say, that there is a 
village o’ blacks over there bossed by an old 
African who thinks he ’s a king. King Cajou. 
And,” laughed the captain, “they say that old 
Cajou ain’t ever been cured o’ eatin’ his ene- 
mies — and sometimes those who ain’t.” 


CHAPTER IX 


A NEW IDEA IN AEROPLANES 

As Andy Leighton prepared for bed that 
night, one idea possessed his mind. He would 
in some manner penetrate Ba^s ignorance and 
learn the story of Timhado Key and its king. 

Then he fell asleep to dream of a tropic isle 
whereon, beneath palms, a band of ghoulish 
savages, black, and clad in skins and feathers, 
knelt in groveling obeisance before a chief, their 
king, the cannibal Cajon. 

His brain was yet full of these things in the 
morning, but the first smell of the shavings in 
the shop was an antidote ; Ba and Timhado, for 
the moment, were put aside. 

Since I Ve got you started,’^ said Andy to 
the captain, after an hour of replanning, ‘‘I 
guess I ’ll go over to my own factory. I ’m 
goin ’ to make the wooden part of the tail guide 
here, but I Ve got to do the metal work, the cog- 
wheels, shaft-guides, and lever joints on the 
forge and lathe.” 

This was Wednesday morning. Friday even- 


98 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

ing when the Red Bird returned from the 
Leighton cottage, it carried a box of shaft cogs 
and other metal parts. In the shop that even- 
ing, stood, in the rough, the frame of the fu- 
ture car — Captain Anderson’s handiwork. 

The spread of this frame was a little over 
thirty-six feet, and, despite Andy’s fortunate 
find of spruce, the four horizontal beams were 
of pine, each cleverly spliced in three places 
with one-quarter inch stove bolts to a short, 
thinned under piece. But the stanchions hold- 
ing the two planes together, and the struts con- 
necting and bracing the front and back beams 
were of spruce, as were all the rib pieces. Pine 
weighs as much as spruce, but it is only five- 
eighths as strong. 

Captain Anderson, having acquainted him- 
self thoroughly with the plans, set about the 
actual work of construction in his own manner. 

The four car beams were each 36 feet, 4 
inches long. They were to be the basis of a car 
6 feet deep and 5 feet high. After two of the 
light, slender beams had been laid on the floor, 
and the eight struts had been laid across them, 
the latter were made fast to the beams by lib- 
eral coats of glue and close winding with the 
waxed seine thread. The other beams were 


A Cruise in the Sky 


99 


treated in the same manner. This required a 
full day^s time, and the big, fragile-looking 
frames were set aside to dry. 

The next morning, Andy’s impatience to test 
the engine could be no longer restrained. 

‘‘What ’s the use of an aeroplane, if that 
don’t work?” he argued. 

The engine responded slowly when started, 
stopped after a few revolutions, and then fell 
to work with an exhaust of thick, black smoke. 

“What ’s the trouble?” exclaimed the 
captain. 

“No trouble,” answered the boy. “It ’s only 
oil in the cylinders — it ’ll be out in a short time. 
She ’s fine and dandy.” 

With regret, Andy shut off the engine to help 
with the other work. The task of connecting the 
upper and lower frames was then undertaken. 
Sixteen stanchions had been rounded and sand- 
papered until the wind-friction-corners had 
been removed. The ends of each of these had 
been slightly slotted. They were then set up- 
right between the upper and lower frames, and, 
after being liberally painted with glue, screwed 
to the beams opposite each stanchion end. The 
attached ends were carefully wrapped with the 
seine thread, which was also glued, and an- 
other day’s work was at an end. 


100 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

‘‘Kind o’ light and flimsy,” suggested the 
captain, when they finally quit work. 

‘ ‘ Sure, ’ ’ admitted Andy. ‘ ‘ It would n ’t hold 
at all that way. It won’t he rigid until we get 
the wire braces on. Then we ’ll tune her up 
like a fiddle. This string and glue don’t do 
much but hold the frame together until we get 
the wires attached. They ’ll brace her like a 
bridge span.” 

The sawing of the spruce strips for ribs — 
pieces 6 feet long by % inch thick and an inch 
wide — was the program for the next day. Cap- 
tain Anderson adjusted the small power circu- 
lar saw that was a part of his outfit, and 
the roughing of the slender pieces was soon 
accomplished. As each had to be delicately 
planed, sandpapered, and shellaced, this job 
ran into night again. 

That evening, Mrs. Leighton began to won- 
der if she might not get a letter from her hus- 
band the next day in relation to the little estate 
and its disposition. 

“I hope not,” whispered Andy to his friend, 
the captain. “He ’ll likely put a crimp in my 
airship plans.” 

“Put a crimp in your airship plans?” re- 
peated Captain Anderson soberly. “What 


A Cruise in the Shy 


101 


have you got to do with the airship? Aren’t 
you working for me? It ’s your father and I 
who are partners.” 

‘ ‘ Oh, of course, ’ ’ replied the boy. ‘ ^ Of course 
— I forgot. But he may not want me to work 
on it.” 

‘^That need n’t stop the work,” exclaimed the 
captain. ‘‘I think I ’ll go ahead just the same. 
I reckon I ’ve got a sort of interest in the en- 
gine, and, as for the bird-tail rudder, I can give 
that up if he wants it. But he won’t; he ’s a 
mechanic.” 

The letter did not come the next day, but 
when it did, in the middle of the following week, 
it was even enthusiastic about the possibilities 
of the discovered model, and congratulated 
Mrs. Leighton on her good luck in being able 
to make an arrangement with Captain Ander- 
son to work out the idea. It said nothing about 
Andy’s work on the testing apparatus. This 
was probably because of Mr. Leighton’s special 
interest in his wife’s description of her broth- 
er ’s estate. How much this was, was indicated 
by his suggestion that no part of the property 
be sold, as he was arranging, if possible, to come 
to Florida in about two weeks. 

When Mrs. Leighton read this, Andy did not 


102 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

hurrah.’’ Instead, he made a quick calcula- 
tion. Then he smiled. In two weeks the aero- 
plane would be completed, and someone would 
have tested it. 

There were over eighty ribs to be attached 
to the two frames of the aeroplane. At inter- 
vals of about a foot, the front end of each strip 
was screwed to the top of the forward beam. 
Extending the strip back over the rear beam, 
it was made fast there with screws. Two feet 
of the free end of each strip extended beyond 
the rear beam. These having been put in place, 
there was a hasty smoothing of all timbers with 
sandpaper and another coat of shellac and 
when Saturday night came, the big skeleton- 
like, fragile-looking frame, which almost filled 
the big boatshed, was locked up with the feel- 
ing that the hardest work had been accom- 
plished. 

By Tuesday night, both planes had been cov- 
ered. The muslin, cut in full six-foot pieces, 
had been soaked in Andy’s waterproof solution 
(equal parts of alum and sugar of lead) and 
dried. Then one end of a piece was glued to 
the front edge of the beam and fastened with 
copper tacks. Carefully the strip was drawn 
back, and, as it was stretched skin tight, made 


A Cruise in the Sky 


103 


fast with small tacks to the ribs. The rear end 
was turned under and glued to prevent ravel- 
ing. 

‘^This is worse than ribbin’ her,” panted 
Andy more than once as he pulled at the mus- 
lin. ‘‘And I reckon the bottom ainT agoin’ to 
be any easier. ’ ’ 

Nor was it. But when the work was done, 
the result of a week’s labor began to look like 
an aeroplane. The muslin was now treated to 
a good coat of varnish, which turned the white 
stretches to a golden brown color. 

The next step was the bracing of the frame 
with wires. Suitable metal plates, with hooks, 
to be attached to the stanchions to atford points 
for holding the wires, were not available. 
Therefore, these were made out of sheet steel 
by Andy and Captain Anderson in the shop 
over on Goat Creek. Screw holes were bored 
by the hand drill found there, and an edge of 
each sheet was turned into a hook by heating 
the metal in the forge and blue-tempering the 
plate afterwards. 

Progress seemed to be slower now, but the 
interest in the work increased in proportion. 
When all the open spaces between the stanch- 
ions had been crossed with diagonal wires tied 


104 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


to the steel plates at the top and bottom of each 
upright and the turn-buckles had been inserted 
in the middle of each length of wire, the proud 
artificers were ready to key the unstable frame 
into rigidity. 

This was a most delicate task. Truing the 
long frame on the floor and squaring its verti- 
cal parts with a level, the task was to tighten 
the wires without warping the sections. 

*‘It ’s like tunin’ a piano,” laughed Andy. 

‘‘Or tightenin’ a sawbuck,” suggested the 
captain. 

Then Andy discovered that the tightened, 
straining wires were acutely vibrant, and he 
began to test his work by twanging the wires 
with his fingers, like the strings of a harp. 

“Here, you,” exclaimed the busy boat 
builder, “you can’t work and play, too — ” 

“You can’t?” laughed Andy. “What are 
you doin’?” 

“I guess you ’re right,” snickered Captain 
Anderson. ‘ ‘ The whole thing is play to me. ’ ’ 

A part of nearly every evening of the ten 
days already consumed in making the aeroplane 
frame had been devoted to theories and sketches 
and plans for attaching the bird-tail rudder, the 
engine and propeller shafts, the wires to flex 


A Cruise in the Shy 


105 


the free extensions of the upper plane and, most 
important of all, a universal lever to flex 
the planes and operate the tail rudder 
simultaneously. 

Pieces and braces were now attached to the 
frame to hold the engine and propellers similar 
to those on the Wright machine. The seat for 
the operator also followed the Wright plan. 
The universal operating lever was an ingenious 
adaptation of the Wright control. 

‘‘It looks good to me,’^ approved Andy, when 
the resourceful captain suggested the con- 
trivance. 

“It ’s about as flimsy as everything else,’’ 
grunted Captain Anderson. “I ’d hate to trust 
my safety to this, or any other part of the 
spidery thing — ” 

“Hush!” interrupted the boy, with a warn- 
ing finger. “Not a word o’ that kind where 
mother can hear it. Now, when I get up in that 
thing — ” 

“You?” broke in the captain, looking very 
sober, as he did when much amused. “Who said 
you were going up in it ? ” 

“Pshaw!” retorted the hoy, “you know you 
ain’t. And Ba ain’t — ” 

“Don’t fly your aeroplane till it ’s built,” 
teased the captain. 


106 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

The lever to operate the planes and bird-tail 
rudder was at the right of the operator's seat. 
It was to be attached to the forward beam by 
means of a rocking-hinge — also devised by Cap- 
tain Anderson, and later made by Andy — that 
permitted a straight motion forward and back 
and a movement to right and left at right angles 
to the other motion. 

About six inches above the beam, a wire was 
made fast to the lever. This wire extended to 
the right and left, and passed beneath grooved 
wheels attached to the base of the first and sec- 
ond stanchions to the right and left. From the 
second wheel on each side the wire passed up 
and diagonally to the rear and far comer of the 
upper plane, where it was made fast. Throw- 
ing the lever to the right drew down the rear of 
the extended upper plane on the left, while the 
contrary motion reversed the operation. 

A frame of spruce and pine, extending ten 
feet in the rear, passing between the orbits of 
the propellers and braced with wires extending 
to the ends of the car beams, was planned to 
carry the proposed tail-guide. The shaft to 
operate this was a reinforced length of spmce. 

This rudder shaft extended to the universal 
control lever. From this end of the shaft, a 


A Cruise in the Shy 


107 


quarter-inch round steel pin extended through 
the lever and was secured by a nut so that the 
shaft might revolve and yet be pushed back- 
ward and forward by a front and rear move- 
ment of the control rudder. 

The mechanism to revolve the shaft to the 
right or left at the same time was what taxed 
Captain Anderson. In an attempt to secure this 
result, he added a small hand lever to the top 
of the principal control lever. This adjunct 
was so hinged that it might be moved only to 
the right and left, and had no play forward or 
backward. At the base of this little lateral lever 
a cross-arm was attached, about six inches 
long. The movement of the little lever gave 
this cross-arm a rocking motion up and down. 

From each end of the rocking lever a hinged 
arm extended downward and engaged — through 
guides — a cogged wheel, also fastened on the 
control shaft. 

‘‘I ’ll bet that ’s exactly the way my uncle 
meant it to work, ’ ’ commented Andy enthusias- 
tically. ‘‘If you throw the control lever to the 
right, the left rear plane is depressed. The 
same motion turns the wheel on the lever shaft. 
This, working in the cog on the rudder shaft, 
gives it a reverse motion — and that throws the 
fins of the tail on a diagonal slant to the right.” 


108 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

‘‘I followin’ out your idea,” assented the 
captain. ‘‘But I don’t know what it means.” 

Andy laughed and explained it all again. 

‘ ‘ Turning to the right with the usual rudder, 
tends to make the machine dart in that direc- 
tion, just as a boat does when you turn quickly. 
To stop that, a part of the aeroplane surface on 
that side is drawn down — that increases the at- 
mospheric pressure and tends to right the ma- 
chine; the flexing wires see to that. But my 
uncle’s bird-tail guide goes further: it attempts 
to lessen this tendency to dart by flexing the 
rudder on the side that is n’t doing the turning. 
By elevating the idle comer, he decreases the 
wind pressure, and that part of the machine 
settles. See?” 

“I don’t,” admitted the captain. “But 
there ’s the machinery to do what you want. ’ ’ 


CHAPTEE X 


DESPERATE NEEDS AND A BOLD APPEAL 

Before the end of the coming week the aero- 
plane would be finished. As this time ap- 
proached, Andy began to be greatly bothered. 
At first, he had worried alone over the airship 
and the possibility of being able to construct it. 
Now, he was satisfied that a practicable air 
craft would result. 

‘‘And what then?^’ Andy was debating this 
on Sunday morning as he stood before the idle 
boathouse. “What ’s the good of it all? It ^s 
a cinch that my mother ain’t goin’ to let me try 
to run it. And what if she does consent? For 
a fellow who has n ’t had a particle of experi- 
ence, to bang away with a car like that ’d be a 
crime. Everyone has to learn. I can, I know, 
but a fellow certainly don’t do it the first time. 
It ’s twenty chances to one that I ’d break the 
thing the first dash out of the box. Gee whiz ! 
but it does seem a shame. ’ ’ 

“What ’s a shame?” asked Captain Ander- 
son, who was strolling to a seat on the pier. 

109 


110 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

Andy explained, walking by his friend’s side. 

^ ‘ Seems to me you Ve begun that line o ’ rea- 
soning pretty late,” commented the captain, as 
he filled his morning pipe. “To tell the truth, 
I haven’t bothered about it because I’ve 
thought all along that your mother would first 
object and then relent. And I supposed anyone 
could operate an aeroplane who had the 
nerve — ” 

“That ’s it,” acknowledged Andy, “they 
can’t. I ’m not afraid, but a fellow ought to 
begin with a gliding machine and learn how to 
handle it — get used to dips, angles, and darts, 
and what ’s necessary to correct ’em. If he 
don’t do that, he should, at least, go up several 
times with someone who can tell him aU about 
it.” 

The captain drew on his pipe slowly. 

“Then what have we been breakin’ our backs 
over?” he asked soberly. “All along we ’ve 
been makin’ something we haven’t any use 
for.” 

“I don’t agree with you there,” answered 
Andy positively. “It is of some use — we found 
we could make it. ’ ’ 

“Humph!” exclaimed the captain. “I could 
have told you that; I would n’t have begun her 
if I had n’t known that.” 


A Cruise in the Shy 


111 


‘^You ^re not sorry, are you?’’ asked the lad, 
a little plaintively. 

‘ ‘ Sorry ! ’ ’ laughed Captain Anderson. ‘ ‘ Not 
a bit, except for you. All I was doin’ was for 
fun and because you were so eager. ’ ’ 

‘ ‘ I know, ’ ’ answered Andy quickly, ^ ^ and you 
bet I ’m grateful enough. I ’m only gettin’ cold 
feet now because you ’ve made such a dandy. 
If it was only my own work, a sort o’ patched 
up thing with a common engine, I ’d bang away 
and take a chance in it, if I could. But I don’t 
believe there has ever been a better flyin’ ma- 
chine made, and if I smashed her, I ’d never 
forgive myself. But it ain’t because I ’m 
afraid.” 

‘^Then,” answered the old boat builder sym- 
pathetically, “we ’ll finish the job if we never 
use the machine. It ’ll be a nice piece of 
work — ” 

“And maybe something ’ll happen,” inter- 
rupted the boy. 

“There ’s always a chance,” answered the 
man, with a big smile. “But I can’t see what 
can happen that ’ll ever make it of use. Not 
unless the clouds part some day and drop a 
trained aviator at our feet — someone lookin^ 
for a job.” 


112 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


‘‘That ’s it/’ exclaimed the boy impulsively. 
“Not out of the clouds, of course. But, per- 
haps, maybe, someway, somehow such a man 
might happen along.” 

The captain smiled and began to unfold his 
paper. 

“Or,” went on Andy, “if he didn’t happen 
along, we might send for one — ” 

“Send for one!” exclaimed the man. “You 
mean hire an aviator to come down here into 
the wilderness ? ’ ’ 

“I guess I didn’t mean that,” said Andy in 
confusion. “I don’t know what I meant.” 

His companion saw tears of chagrin and dis- 
appointment almost showing. 

“Don’t you bother, Andy. We ’U finish the 
airship in the best manner we can. I hardly 
think we can employ a professional aviator, but 
something may happen — something usually 
happens when you ’re young enough and eager 
enough. ’ ’ 

“If mother lets me, I ’ll do it anyway,” broke 
out the boy. 

“And smash our beautiful machine?” 
laughed the captain. 

Andy winced. 

“Come,” went on the captain. “I always 


A Cruise in the Shy 


113 


worry to-morrow. Run into the house, get 
something to read, and forget aeroplanes to- 
day. I think it ^s gotten on your nerves a 
little.’’ 

But the day was too fine for reading, and, as 
a good sailing breeze came up. Captain Ander- 
son soon followed Andy, with a proposal that 
all, including Ba, should sail to Melbourne. 

The plunge of the swift Valharia through 
the water and the savor of the semi-salt spray 
were enough to revive all the lad’s old enthu- 
siasm. He took the tiller at times, helped with 
the sheets, and, long before Melbourne was 
reached, the joy of sailing had pushed the aero- 
plane temporarily into the background. 

While waiting in the parlor of the little hotel, 
his elders busy with new acquaintances, Andy 
stumbled upon something that set him thinking. 
In a few minutes, with almost a gasp — as if 
some idea was too much for him — he left the 
house and curled up on a seat on the gallery. 
His forehead was wrinkled. He had come to a 
sudden and bold decision, and he was trying to 
persuade himself that it was not ridiculous. 

^‘Anything new botherin’ you, Andy?” asked 
Captain Anderson, as he appeared to tell the 
boy that dinner was ready. 


114 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

‘‘Nothin’ that ’s botherin’ me,” answered 
Andy, in a rather confident tone, “but I ’ve got 
an idea. I reckon it ’s so foolish that I ain’t 
agoin’ to tell about it — yet.” 

As the boy followed the man into the house, 
he folded up a newspaper he had found on the 
parlor table and put it into his pocket. After 
dinner Andy secured from the landlady some 
paper, an envelope, and a stamp. In the office, 
he wrote a letter which, however, he did not 
seal. 

That done, he composed himself until there 
was talk of starting home. There was no post- 
office at Valkaria, and as Andy had an impor- 
tant letter that he wanted to mail at the earliest 
opportunity, he managed to get Captain Ander- 
son aside. 

A little nervously he drew out the paper he 
had in his pocket. It was an Indian Eiver 
region paper — the Daytona Daily Beacon, The 
boy pointed to the main article on the front 
page — an account of the annual automobile 
speed contests to be held during the coming 
week. Although these races, which take place 
on Ormond’s famed ocean beach — ^hard and 
smooth as cement — are known all over the 
world. Captain Anderson had no great interest 
in them. 


A Cruise in the Sky 


115 


^‘You like to goV^ lie began, glancing at 
the article indifferently. 

Instead of replying, the boy, his nervousness 
most apparent, ran his finger down the column, 
through the program, to the end, where it 
paused on a sub-head entitled: ^^Distinguished 
Visitors Present.’’ The captain’s eyes fol- 
lowed Andy’s shaking finger. Then he saw it 
pointing to two names. These were : 

W. Atkinson, President American Aero- 
plane Works, Newark, New Jersey. Mr. Roy 
Osborne, ditto.” 

‘^Friends of yours I” asked the captain, still 
mystified. 

Never saw either,” exclaimed the boy. 
‘‘But I want you to read this.” 

He drew out his newly-written letter, and, 
fumbling it in his excitement, finally got the 
sheet in Captain Anderson’s hands. It read: 

“Valkaria, Florida, Jan. 

“Mr. Roy Osborne, 

^^Care J, W. Atkinson, Pres, Am, Aeroplane 
Works, Daytona, Florida, 

*^Dear Sir: — You will he surprised to get this 
letter. But maybe you wonH he sorry. Like a 
good many other hoys, I have read about your 


116 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

experiences with aeroplanes. I live in St. Paul, 
and the newspapers there published all about 
what you did in Utah. The papers said you are 
only 17 years old, and that is why I am writing 
this, as I am 16 . As 1 said, I donH live here, 
hut I ’ve been down here nearly two weeks, and 
1 ^m living with Captain Anderson, at this 
place. We have made an aeroplane that I am 
sure will fly. It has a new kind of rudder that 
I ^ve never heard of before. Maybe it is a good 
thing. 1 am taking the liberty of writing this 
letter to you because the papers say you are a 
skilled aviator. And I thought maybe you 
would like to investigate the new rudder that 
we have made. I havenH any money to pay 
you to do it, but 1 thought that you might like 
to do it anyway because you are a boy. It is 
only 85 miles to Valkaria from Daytona. I sup- 
pose you work for Mr. Atkinson, but if he will 
let you come, there is splendid boating down 
here, and we have some fine ripe pineapples and 
oranges, and I would be glad to show you our 
new airship. Trusting that I may be favored 
with an early reply, I am, 

^^Your obedient servant, 

‘‘Andkew Leighton. 

*^P.S.: — The engine was made by my U7icie, 
and it is a beauty.^ ^ 


A Cruise in the Sky 


117 


When Captain Anderson finished reading the 
letter, his face was a puzzle. He frowned, he 
ran his hands through his heavy silvery hair, 
and he laughed. 

‘‘Andy,’’ he said, as he reached this stage, 
“you are certainly hound to get on in the world. 
Now, who ’d have thought of that? Of course, 
he won’t come — ” 

“Why won’t he?” snapped the boy. “I 
would, if I were in his place and got a letter like 
that—”. . 

“But he ’s evidently at Daytona with his 
boss — ” 

“That’s it. They aren’t there for fun. 
They ’re watching motors; they ’re lookin’ for 
ideas.” 

“But what do you know about him?” 

Then Andy told the story of Roy Osborne, 
which is so well known in aviation circles, and 
which was familiar to him through the book 
written about the young aviator’s hazardous 
and interesting experiences in the west under 
the title of “The Aeroplane Express.” 

“And you ’re goin’ to send it?” commented 
the captain. 

“Right away!” 

“Well,” exclaimed the man, laughing, “it is 


118 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

certainly a nervy thing to do. But, good luck 
to you.^^ 

There was no poling the Valkaria that even- 
ing, and the sail home was full of joy to all. 
The next morning, work on the aeroplane was 
resumed with new vigor. The braced car now 
occupied so much of the shop that, each morn- 
ing, Captain Anderson and Andy carried it out 
to the sandy river shore, where it rested all 
day on horses,’^ that the two workmen might 
have the entire shop for their further work. 

It had been vaguely planned that the starting 
and landing wheels would be wooden and hand- 
made. But from the moment Captain Ander- 
son read the letter to Roy Osborne and con- 
fronted the possibility of exhibiting his work 
to a professional, he became additionally am- 
bitious. Early Monday morning, he telephoned 
to Titusville for three old bicycle wheels with 
mending kits and a pump. 

‘‘Everything is right but the wheels,” he ex- 
plained. “And if she donT work, we can’t af- 
ford to have it because we fell down on them.” 

That day and the next, Andy worked on the 
wheel mechanism and the brake, while Captain 
Anderson was at last wholly occupied with the 
bird-tail guide. The most delicate work was 


A Cruise in the Sky 


119 


required for tlie ^ ‘ heart ’ ^ of the contrivance, as 
he called it, which was the thin tail pinions of 
wood, each of which had to he worked out like 
the blade of a propeller. 

The week went by with no word from Roy 
Osborne. At first Captain Anderson was in- 
clined to twit Andy about his letter. But when 
he saw how seriously the boy viewed his own 
presumption, the sympathetic boat builder 
ceased his joking. 

^^He might have answered my letter, at 
least, ’ ’ Andy would say. 

Each day Ba sailed to Melbourne for the 
mail, and each time he came back with no com- 
munication from Daytona. 

‘‘By Saturday she ’ll be ready for the en- 
gine, I think,” said Captain Anderson in mid- 
week. 

“I reckon so,” replied Andy, rather ruefully. 
“But there ’s no use o’ puttin’ the engine in 
her as long as we ’ve got to tote her in and out 
of the shop every day.” 

“No,” exclaimed the captain, “we ’ll go the 
limit. When we get that shaft rigging in and 
the chain drives and the propellers on, I want 
to see the engine hooked up to ’em. I want 
to see those wheels move, if we ’ve got to tie 


120 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

her to the dock to keep her from flyin’ away. 
And we ’ll fit on the rudder and the front bal- 
ance, too, just to see what the whole thing looks 
like.” 

’m goin’ to make her let me do it,” broke 
in Andy impulsively. ‘‘Mother won’t have the 
heart to refuse me when she sees it all out there 
ready to fly.” 

The captain took a long puff at his pipe and 
laughed. 

“Anyway,” he said slowly, “she looks like 
the real thing to me. If your mother ’ll let you, 
go the limit. If she won’t fly, bust her. I don’t 

y> 


care. 


CHAPTEE XI 


EOY OSBOKNE BEACHES VALKAEIA 

Andy had fallen into the habit of strolling up 
the sandy road each evening about the time for 
the Lake Worth Express to go south. But not 
once did he catch the sound of the warning 
whistle or the grinding brakes. Even the Fri- 
day night train went by without slackening 
speed, and the boy was almost ready to aban- 
don hope that Eoy Osborne might come to his 
rescue. 

‘ ‘ The automobile races were ended this after- 
noon, ^ ’ said Andy when he returned to the house 
after a vain visit to the box-car depot Friday 
evening. ^‘If he don’t come to-morrow even- 
ing, I ’ll give up.” 

Although neither Andy nor Captain Ander- 
son talked much about the new aeroplane this 
evening, the machine being practically com- 
plete, they could not resist making it the sub- 
ject of some comment. 

^‘It don’t look very strong to me,” remarked 
121 


122 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

Mrs. Anderson. Where do yon hitch on the 
wings ? ’ ^ 

In explaining that the wings were the two 
planes, Andy grew verbose and was soon ex- 
patiating, for the first time, on the magnificent 
possibilities of the apparatus. 

^‘Then you let it up with a rope,’^ suggested 
Mrs. Anderson, upon whom, to tell the truth, a 
good part of Andy’s technical talk was wasted. 

Both Andy and Captain Anderson laughed. 

‘‘I wish we could,” exclaimed the captain, 
‘‘but I ’m afraid we ’ll have to sail it without 
a rope. It works just like a boat — but in the 
air,” he explained. 

“But who guides it?” persisted his wife. 

“Who? Why, there must be an operator. I 
supposed you knew that — ” 

“I knew that much about it,” interrupted 
Mrs. Leighton, with a half patronizing smile. 
“I ’ve just been waiting for Andrew to offer to 
do it.” 

There was an awkward silence. The captain 
puckered his lips, and Andy grew white about 
the mouth. Someone had to say something. 

“And what if I did?” said the boy, at last, 
his fingers gripped and his breath partly sup- 
pressed. 


A Cruise in the Sky 


123 


^‘Have you been counting on doing tbis?^^ 
asked his mother, sitting upright and leaning 
toward the distressed boy. 

‘‘N — ^no,^’ stammered Andy. ^‘But there is 
no one else.’’ 

Mrs. Leighton turned toward Captain 
Anderson : 

‘‘Do you want him to do this, Captain?” she 
asked, her voice indicating that this situation 
had been long anticipated. 

“ No, ” exclaimed the captain. ‘ ‘ I don ’t want 
him to do it. Of course, it is more than 
dangerous. ’ ’ 

“You know you said you ’d find someone,” 
continued Mrs. Leighton, who was visibly under 
a strain. 

“I haven’t found anyone yet,” replied the 
captain, somewhat crestfallen. 

Mrs. Leighton was silent a few moments. 

“Captain,” she said at last, “whenever, in 
your judgment, Andrew can be of further use 
to you in this experiment, he may do as you 
wish. If you think he ought to attempt to ope- 
rate this aeroplane, I feel that I must defer to 
your judgment — ” 

The captain was on his feet in an instant, 
shaking his head. 


124 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

^‘We should have thought of all this before 
we began and saved all our trouble and ex- 
pense,’^ he exclaimed. ‘‘It ’s too late to mend 
that, but it isn’t too late to prevent the boy 
breaking his neck. I don’t recommend that he 
turn aviator — I don’t even believe I ’ll consent 
to it.” 

Any hope that Andy had that his mother 
might approve of his undertaking to operate 
the car, was dead. The boy arose and left the 
room. He choked back a sob and wiped away a 
few tears that he could not suppress, and then 
walked far out on the pier and sat in the moon- 
light alone and sadder than he had ever been 
in his life. 

When he finally entered the boathouse to go 
to bed, he found Captain Anderson already 
asleep. The boy wondered if his friend and 
co-worker did not feel something of the same 
disappointment. In the morning Andy was 
awakened by a noise in the shop, and he turned 
over to find Captain Anderson opening the big 
double doors. 

“Turn out, youngster, and give me a hand. 
I want to get the car out so I can fasten on the 
rudder. ’ ’ 

“I suppose you ’re goin’ to take a photograph 


A Cruise in the Sky 


125 


of it/’ said Andy, with a sad smile, ‘‘and then 
knock her to pieces. It would make a fine rack 
to dry clothes on — ” 

“I ’m goin’ to test her out if it ’s the last 
thing I do alive,” said the captain in a deter- 
mined voice. 

“You?” exclaimed Andy, rolling out of bed. 
“You? Not if I can stop you, you won’t. 
You ’re sure to kill yourself.” 

“What about you?” replied his companion. 

“Oh, I — well, that ’s different. I always 
wanted to. And you ’re doin’ it just because — 
because you ’re mad. ’ ’ 

“Never mind why I ’m doing it,” went on 
the captain. “You get dressed and get busy.” 

Without daring to make further protests, the 
boy complied. At the earliest moment, how- 
ever, he went into the house and almost imme- 
diately Mrs. Anderson appeared with a skillet 
in her hand. Bushing down the path to the 
boathouse, she cried : 

“Charles Anderson, you ’ll do no such 
thing.” 

Her husband, already bolting on the bird- 
tail rudder frame, looked up in surprise. 

“Do you mean to tell me you think you ’re 
goin’ sailin’ ofif in the sky in that thing?” 


126 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

‘‘I haven’t told you anything of the sort,” 
answered the captain somewhat meekly. 

‘‘Well, are you?” 

“I— I—” 

“You are not! That ’s all there is to that. 
It ’s bad enough to come down here and live 
half the year doing nothing and seeing nothing 
while you fritter away your time building boats 
you don’t want, and nobody wants, I guess. 
But you mark what I say, I ain’t goin’ to go 
mopin’ around in black the rest o’ my life pre- 
tending you weren’t crazy when you com- 
mitted suicide. And if you don’t tell me this 
minute you ’ll stay down on the ground, I ’ll 
smash every stick in this fool killer.” 

“I — I — ” began the captain again. 

As he hesitated, his irate wife sprang for- 
ward with her skillet in the air. The fragile 
varnished spruce stanchions were at her mercy. 

“I promise,” capitulated her husband. “I 
won’t try it.” 

“Then you come right in to breakfast,” ex- 
claimed Mrs. Anderson. “And if you want my 
advice, you ’ll put a match to that whole con- 
traption and try to get back to your senses 
again. You, too, Andrew,” she said hotly as 
she passed the alarmed lad. “You ’re both 
clean crazy.” 


A Cruise in the Sky 


127 


Despite this domestic conflict, Captain 
Anderson and Andy could not resist a sur- 
reptitious glance now and again and a covert 
smile. But Mrs. Anderson was in earnest, and 
the old-time silence about the new aeroplane 
was resumed at the breakfast table. 

‘^Othello’s occupation’s gone,” said Captain 
Anderson in a low voice as he and the boy left 
the house. 

‘‘He may come to-night,” almost whispered 
Andy, referring to Roy Osborne. “Hadn’t 
we better go ahead?” 

Captain Anderson nodded his head toward 
the kitchen, where Mrs. Anderson could be 
heard making far more than ordinary kitchen 
clatter. 

“Nothing to-day,” he said, with a smile. 
“Mrs. Anderson is the easiest-going woman in 
the world. But, when she breaks out as she 
did to-day, I don’t want to cross her. We ’ll 
put the car hack into the shop, and — ^well, we 
might try a sail until the storm is over.” 

“There ’s someone out already,” remarked 
the almost disconsolate boy, pointing toward 
a speck of sail far down the river. 

Captain Anderson looked and led the way 
to the boathouse. Unbolting the part of the 


128 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

rudder frame he had already attached, he and 
Andy carried the light frame into the shop. 

‘‘Something like a pallbearer,’’ remarked 
the captain. “Maybe our sail will cheer us 
up.” 

Before he left the shop, he took down his 
binoculars, and had a squint up and down the 
river. 

“Looks like Lars Nilsen’s Frieda from St. 
Sebastian,” commented the captain, indicating 
the boat in sight. 

Ten minutes later the man and the boy had 
rowed out to the anchored Valkaria, and were 
hoisting the sail, when Captain Anderson 
noticed that the boat in the river had come 
about and was making for his pier. 

“It is Nilsen,” said the captain, “and he ’s 
cornin’ in. Hang on to the mooring till we see 
what he wants.” 

As the Frieda approached the pier, it could 
be seen that, besides the man sailing the boat, 
a young man was aboard. By his side, in the 
stern, lay a traveling bag. The passenger had 
a smooth but somewhat tanned face, and he 
wore a stiff-brimmed light-colored soft hat 
such as are common in the far west. 

Captain Anderson sang out a greeting to the 


A Cruise in the Sky 


129 


skipper of the little craft and, the moment its 
nose touched the pier, the young man, bag in 
hand, sprang on the dock. 

Andy^s heart thumped with a sudden 
thought. He dropped the mooring line, and 
the Valkaria drifted dockward. 

‘Hs this Captain Anderson T’ called the 
young man. 

As the captain replied, the stranger con- 
tinued : 

‘^Then this is Andy Leighton!’’ 

^Ht is,” shouted Andy, ‘^and you ’re Eoy 
Osborne!” 

‘‘One guess did it,” exclaimed the youth. 
“I ’m a little late, but we had a great sail. I 
got your letter— came down last night, but got 
carried to St. Sebastian and stayed all night 
with Mr. Nilsen — came up in the Frieda — 
dandy boat — how ’s the airship?” 

“I hardly thought you ’d come,” began 
Andy, embarrassed. 

“It was sort of accidental,” replied the new 
arrival, as he shook hands all around. “I was 
to go back to Newark yesterday, but when I 
showed Mr. Atkinson your letter, he said I 
might come. I ’m to join him at Lake Worth 
to-morrow.” 


130 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

To-morrow?’^ exclaimed Andy. you 

have to go so soon?’’ 

“Mr. Atkinson thought it wouldn’t take 
long. I didn’t just understand. How did you 
ever happen to get an aeroplane down here?” 

As the party started up the pier, Andy be- 
gan his explanation. Without going to the 
house, the group went at once to the boat shed. 
Within five minutes, Eoy Osborne, his coat off 
and his sleeves rolled up, was again the expert 
aviator. Swiftly he went over the newly 
wrought car, examined every detail of the bird- 
tail rudder and then asked Andy to operate it. 
Then he did the same thing himself. 

“What do you think of it?” asked Andy with 
barely concealed anxiety. 

“An adaptation of Kenaud’s idea,” an- 
swered the young professional. 

“Renaud?” repeated Andy. “I don’t be- 
lieve my uncle ever heard of him or his idea.” 

“Quite likely,” answered Osborne, “but it is 
a most ingenious application of the French- 
man’s theory. It has never before been ap- 
plied,” he went on. 

“Will it work?” exclaimed Andy. 

“Mechanically, it looks good to me. But 
there is only one way to find whether it is a 
practical improvement — try it!” 


A Cruise in the Sky 


131 


‘^Will youf^’ urged Andy. 

“Let me see the engine/’ was the youthful 
aviator’s answer. 

Here was something Andy understood. Al- 
most before Eoy Osborne reached the delicate 
motor, Andy had primed it, set his ignition, 
and, much to his relief, had the cylinders softly 
singing with the unbroken purr of the perfect 
engine. 

The sight of the aeroplane had not moved the 
new arrival. But at the sound of the engine, 
he sprang forward, and then stood amazed. 
The next instant, his hands, big and sinewy 
for his age, were on the cylinders as if caress- 
ing them. His eyes glistened. Then his 
strong hands caught one end of the throbbing 
mechanism and raised it partly from the floor. 

“Have you got the patterns for that?” he 
exclaimed quickly. 

“There are none,” answered Andy. “My 
imcle made it — he ’s dead. ’ ’ 

Osborne stopped and started the engine. 

“I ’ll give $10,000 for it and the right to 
make it,” he added, after another moment. 

Andy gasped; even Captain Anderson’s 
mouth dropped open. 

“How — how about the new rudder,” Andy 
managed to say, at last. 


132 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

don’t know about that, yet. But I do 
know about this. Will you sell it?” 

Andy was confused; he hesitated, with no 
definite thought. 

‘‘Show Andy how to operate our aeroplane, 
if it ’ll go,” put in Captain Anderson, “and I 
reckon we can trade.” 

Osborne turned to the excited, trembling 
Andy. 

“Is it a go?” he asked with a smile. 

“If you can make our aeroplane fly,” an- 
swered Andy, his face almost white with joyous 
emotion, “and ’ll teach me how to do it, you 
can have anything I ’ve got.’ 


CHAPTER Xn 


THE PELICAN MAKES ITS FIRST FLIGHT 

Based on his hasty examination of the aero- 
plane, young Osborne instantly suggested a few 
improvements or reinforcements. As most of 
the work yet to be done, such as the attachment 
of the rudder, landing skis, and wheels, would 
increase the car so much in size that it could 
not be taken in and out of the shop, everything 
was immediately moved out of doors. 

Then, before actual labor began. Captain 
Anderson suggested that they go into the house 
for a few moments. Andy chuckled. He knew 
that the captain wanted to acquaint his sus- 
picious wife with the turn in affairs — possibly 
the captain was afraid that Mrs. Osborne might 
make a real attack with her skillet. 

Andy could not but envy the young aviator ^s 
natty figure and the professional look about 
him. It was with considerable pride that he 
presented Osborne to Mrs. Anderson and his 
mother. 

“Maybe you donT know about him,’^ began 
133 


134 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

Andy while Roy protested and grew red in the 
face, ‘‘but there isn’t anyone in America, 
young or old, who knows any more about flyin’ 
machines than he does. There ’s a book about 
him, and he ain’t but — ^how old are you?” ex- 
claimed the boy. 

‘ ‘ Oh, I can ’t vote yet, ’ ’ laughed Roy. ‘ ‘ This 
is certainly a beautiful place for a home, Mrs. 
Anderson.” 

“And that book tells how he figured out an 
aeroplane express in the deserts of Utah and 
found a lost tribe of Indians — ” 

“But I can’t see that anything I did was half 
as remarkable as the making of a complete 
aeroplane down here,” broke in Roy. 

“I never saw a regular flying machine,” said 
Mrs. Anderson, “but this one doesn’t look like 
one to me. Do you think it is all right?” 

“No aeroplane is absolutely all right,” an- 
swered Roy smiling. “But this one out there 
is correct so far as I understand aeroplanes. 
Anyway, I ’m going to test this one out, and I 
don’t expect to kill myself doing it.” 

“How far can you go in it?” asked Mrs. 
Leighton. 

“If it works all right, I could go easily from 
here to Lake Worth, or back over the Ever- 
glades, or even across to the Bahamas — ” 


A Cruise in the Shy 


135 


‘‘To the Bahamas r’ broke in Andy. 

“Certainly/^ affirmed Eoy. “I understand 
they arenT over eighty-five or ninety miles 
away. But I shanT do any of these things. 
I T make a thorough test of the apparatus and 
then show Andy how to operate it.’’ 

“Andy!” exclaimed Mrs. Leighton in alarm. 

“I promised to,” explained Eoy, surprised. 
“That is, if he wants to try it.” 

But Mrs. Leighton was shaking her head. 

“That ’s part of my business, you know. I ’ve 
taught a good many persons and have never 
yet had an accident. ’ ’ 

‘‘I don’t think I want him to learn,” said 
Mrs. Leighton slowly. 

“Mother,” spoke up Andy, with energy, 
“didn’t you say I could try to operate this car 
when Captain Anderson asked you to let me 
do it?” 

“I — believe I did,” conceded that lady hesi- 
tatingly. 

“Well, Captain Anderson,” exclaimed 
Andy stoutly, “don’t you want me to try it?” 

“If Mr. Osborne tests it out and takes you 
up and shows you how, I think it ’ll be all 
right.” 

“There,” urged the boy facing his mother, 
“are you going to keep your word?” 


136 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

‘‘Let ’s see what Mr. Osborne has to say 
about it after he has tried it/^ pleaded the 
boy’s mother. 

That was all the concession Andy wanted. 

At three o’clock the Pelican was completed. 

“You have to wait for the wind to go 
down, don’t you?” asked Captain Anderson. 
“That ’ll be about five o’clock.” 

Roy shook his head. 

“Some do,” he said, “but with a perfectly- 
made machine and a powerful engine, I like a 
fair breeze.” He looked about. “I ’m all 
ready. ’ ’ 

The river shore at each side of Captain An- 
derson’s place was crossed by a wire fence. 
On the south side of the pier, the hard, white 
sand stretched like a road for miles. Here 
and there was a little driftwood. Captain 
Anderson removed the fence with a few blows 
of an axe, while Andy ran down the shore to 
remove the driftwood. 

“I suppose you think it strange I don’t 
help,” said Roy to Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. 
Leighton, who were on the pier. “But that ’s 
the first thing an aeroplane operator has to 
learn. When I make an extensive flight, I do 
no work that day if I can help it. My assist- 


A Cruise in the Sky 


137 


ants fill the tanks and get the car in place. I 
save every bit of muscle and nerve force I 
have.” 

‘^You haven’t stuck to your rule to-day,” 
suggested Mrs. Leighton a little anxiously. 
‘‘You ’ve worked harder than the others.” 

“Oh, this isn’t a real flight,” explained 
Eoy. “I mean one in which you ’re going to 
do stunts in the way of an exhibition. I shan’t 
go high or far. If I were going up several 
thousand feet — ” 

“Several thousand feet!” exclaimed both 
ladies. 

“The safety in aeroplane work,” Eoy ex- 
plained, “is in going very high or very low — 
no middle ground. Either go so low that a 
fall won’t hurt you, or get up so high that if 
anything happens, your machine will have 
time to get into a glide.” 

The fence having been removed and the 
beach cleared, the taut, bird-like aeroplane 
was carefully trundled around the pier and 
out on the sand facing south, from which di- 
rection the breeze was blowing. Andy and the 
captain were visibly nervous. 

Then, as if it had just occurred to him, Eoy 
said he would test the engine once more. Mrs. 


138 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

Anderson and Mrs. Leighton had followed 
close behind. Eoy turned with a smile. 

“You ladies had better step to one side,’’ he 
suggested. “There ’ll be quite a commotion 
behind. Take hold of her,” he said to the cap- 
tain and Andy. 

He located Captain Anderson and Andy at 
the rear of the car on opposite sides of the 
rudder frame and told them to sit on the 
ground and dig heel holes in the sand as if 
pulling on a rope in a tug-of-war. 

“And pull your hats over your eyes,” he 
ordered. “Hold your heads down and hang 
on until you get the word to ‘let go’.” 

The captain, not less eagerly than Andy, 
did as directed, and Eoy, having turned the 
propeller blades into place, started the en- 
gine. The first whirr of the big blades began 
to agitate the loose sand and dry grass. Then 
the young aviator turned on more power. The 
agitation grew into a breeze, and that into a 
tornado-like storm of wind. The boy and the 
man on the ground felt the aeroplane pulling, 
and as it began to tug at its human anchors 
and rock from side to side, Eoy quickly shut 
olf the engine. 

“Fine,” he remarked without excitement. 


A Cruise in the Shy 


139 


as the dust and grass settled and Andy and 
the captain shook the dirt from their faces. 
^‘Nothing the matter with that engine.’’ Then 
with another look about and a ‘‘feel” of the 
hand for the wind, he walked to the front of 
the car. 

The breeze seemed a little stronger now. As 
the young aviator noticed this, he ran into the 
boathouse and appeared with his coat. This 
he buttoned and then turned up the collar. 

“There ’s just a chance that I ’ll have to go 
up a little to turn and get back on the beach,” 
he explained, “and you don’t have to go very 
high to find it considerably cooler.” 

Then he turned the visor of his cap to the 
rear, and climbed into the seat. 

“Hold on till you get the word,” he com- 
manded. At the same moment he started the 
engine again. 

Once more the rush of wind behind told the 
power of the revolving propellers. Eoy did 
not look behind. One hand on the engine valve 
and the other on the lever control, he sat un- 
moving. Lower and lower dropped the heads 
of the captain and Andy, as their heels sank 
into the sand and their hands gripped the 
framework — the fragile car was throbbing 


140 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

■with power and the propellers were no longer 
■\dsible. 

‘‘She ’s slippin’ — 

“Let goV^ shouted Roy. 

As the captain and the boy fell backward, 
the untested aeroplane darted forward. For a 
few yards, it bounded up and do-wn, and then, 
as if gathering new force, shot straight over 
the smooth sand. 

Once it seemed about to rise, and then, strik- 
ing the beach again, the aviator seemed to lose 
control of the machine. The rushing aero- 
plane shot sideways, as if to dash into the 
shallow river. Again it sprang upward, and 
again darted toward the river. Just as the 
forward wheel touched the water, the great 
planes caught the breeze, poised themselves 
for an instant, and rose in the air like a flut- 
tering duck. Twice its rear wheels touched 
the surface of the river, and then the specta- 
tors could see Roy shoot the bird-tail rudder 
shaft to the rear and the pinions fly upwards. 

“He ’s offl’^ shouted Andy. 

“You bet he is!’’ shouted Captain Ander- 
son just as ■sdgorously. “She ’s flyin’I” 

On the sand, Andy raced back and forth, as 
if he had lost his senses. With a loud whoop 


A Cruise in the Shy 


141 


of joy, he turned a handspring as the only re- 
lief for his bottled-up excitement. 

Out over the river the Pelican flew a few 
hundred feet, and then, veering toward the 
beach, began to rise. Her propellers seemed 
to sound louder as she lifted herself. And 
southward, Eoy held her, between two hun- 
dred and three hundred feet above the beach, 
for perhaps a half mile. 

Then her operator began to mount higher. 
As he did so, he turned out over the water and 
brought the machine about toward the north, 
at least eight hundred feet above the water. 

Andy ran to his mother and threw his arm 
around her. 

Watch it!’’ he cried. ‘Hsn’t it a wonder?” 

But his mother was too astounded to make 
a reply. 

Having tested the machine, Eoy could not 
resist one of his exhibition stunts. His pro- 
pellers going full speed, he headed the car to- 
ward the beach at a point a little south of 
where the fence had stood. 

Coming directly toward his audience, his 
speed could only be guessed by the rapidly 
growing outlines of the car. 

This was shooting downward like some swift 


142 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

bird in search of prey. At the angle at which 
it was traveling, it must surely dash itself on 
the beach. 

‘‘Look out I’’ yelled Andy, alarmed. 

Then something happened. With coolness 
that had come only with many flights, the boy 
in the machine made two swift motions. As 
one hand shut off the engine, the other shot 
back the rudder lever. The darting machine 
responded to the guiding planes, rose lightly 
as if it had struck an atmospheric hill, and 
then, the propellers coming to an instant stop, 
the machine floated gracefully forward as if 
on invisible tracks. Touching its wheels 
daintily on the ground a few times, it came to 
a gentle run which ended as Eoy gradually 
applied the wheel brake. 

“She wants a little ballast on the right 
side,’’ said Eoy as he slid from his seat. Then 
he reached out his hands to the captain and 
Andy, and said, with a laugh: 

“Any time you gentlemen need jobs, I ’ll 
undertake to get them for you in Newark. 
Your machine is all right. The bird-tail guide 
certainly helps. I found a little trouble to 
start because I didn’t give it enough play; I 
didn’t allow for the counter-action. But it 


A Cruise in the Shy 


143 


certainly helps. Did you see the turn? With 
a plain rudder, I ’d have come almost to a 
standstill doing that. I had a dip, but nothing 
like the usual one.’^ 

‘^Do you think we can get a patent on it?’’ 
asked Andy almost perfunctorily, for he was 
already feeling the engine cylinders and in- 
specting the shafts for hot hearings. 

‘‘I don’t know,” said Eoy, loosening his 
coat and reversing his cap. ‘^The idea I ’ve 
heard of before — maybe it is patented. But 
I ’d try. And, if you can, I hope you ’ll give 
us the first chance at it — I mean our com- 
pany. ’ ’ 

‘‘Weren’t you scared?” asked Mrs. Leigh- 
ton. 

“Mrs. Leighton,” answered Eoy, “you 
can’t make an aviator — ^he ’s born. That isy 
you can’t educate away fear. I am scared 
sometimes, but it ’s from the engine behind 
my back, never because of the height at which 
I ’m working. But I wish they ’d put an en- 
gine where you could watch it. A hundred 
feet up or three thousand, it ’s all the same to 
me. The engine is what I ’m afraid of. But 
here ’s one I ’m less afraid of than any I ever 
saw. ’ ’ 

The short winter day was coming to an end, 


144 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

but the sun was yet above the horizon- The 
breeze had dropped a little. Andy turned 
suddenly from his examination of the motor 
and whispered to Eoy. The latter smiled and 
nodded his head. 

‘‘Mother/’ said Andy, “Mr. Osborne won’t 
be here long. I ’m going up with him.” 

“I — ” began Mrs. Leighton. “Are you 
sure it ’s safe, Mr. Osborne?” 

“We can never be sure of that,” answered 
Eoy. “But I ’d rather trust myself in an 
aeroplane than on a motorcycle.” 

“What if your engine stopped?” suggested 
the disturbed woman. 

“It stopped just now. Or, I stopped it,” 
added Eoy. “I can’t go up without the en- 
gine, but I can come down without it.” 

“Well — ” began Mrs. Leighton. 

“Can you hold her alone. Captain Ander- 
son?” shouted Andy joyously, knowing that 
consent had been given. 

“I can hold her until she pulls away,” re- 
sponded the captain soberly, “and when she 
does that, I guess she ’ll be pullin’ some.” 

“That ’ll do,” said Eoy. “Climb aboard.” 

Three minutes later, Andy Leighton rose 
from the ground in his first aeroplane flight — 
but not the last by any means. 


CHAPTER XIII 


BA^ THE BAHAMAN, TALKS AT LAST 

‘‘The first thing I discovered,’’ said Andy, 
when his fiight was over, “was that it isn ’t 
half as scary as it looks. When I ’ve watched 
aviators and seen the planes dip, it always 
seemed I ’d feel as if it was sure goin’ to turn 
over. But you don’t.” 

“It ’s because you are moving with the ma- 
chine,” explained Roy. “A grade don’t seem 
as steep when you are on it.” 

“I couldn’t get up even a thrill,” declared 
Andy. “I supposed I’d hang on — I didn’t. 
Why, Roy even let me look after the engine. ’ ’ 

“When I began flying,” said Roy, “I went 
up alone. It was a foolish thing to do. After 
that, when I was really learning, I had to fol- 
low Mr. Atkinson’s first rule for new men — ^if 
they flew lower than six feet or higher than 
twenty-five, he made them descend. Follow 
that rule, and you ’ll learn all you can find out 
by going up higher.” 

It was agreed that nothing more should be 
done that day. The aeroplane was wheeled 
145 


146 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

over near the boathouse and the engine was 
covered with a tarpanlin. There would be no 
risk in leaving it thus exposed, but Captain 
Anderson said Ba would likely show up, as it 
was Saturday night. The colored man was to 
act as watchman. 

‘‘And how long are you going to keep that 
up?’’ asked the thoughtful Mrs. Anderson. 
“What use is the thing going to be?” 

This was a poser. The captain did not at- 
tempt an answer. 

“I ’d like a few more lessons, if I can get 
them,” suggested Andy. 

“You can operate it now,” put in Roy, “if 
you do as I said.” 

“Why do you want more lessons?” asked 
Mrs. Leighton in turn. “Are you thinking of 
becoming an aviator yourself?” 

Roy smiled, and Andy’s jaws set. But the 
boy made no reply. 

When Roy, the aeroplane cared for and the 
exciting flights having been discussed in all de- 
tails, suggested that he might as well board 
the night train and proceed to Lake Worth, 
there was a protest on the part of all. The 
young aviator had already endeared himself 
to his Valkaria hosts. Finally, he was per- 


A Cruise in the Sky 


147 


suaded to stay over Sunday, with the promise 
of a sail on the Valkaria the next day. 

Nearly all of Sunday was spent on the Val- 
karia, Saturday night and Sunday night, 
Roy and Andy slept in the boatshed, the cap- 
tain returning to the house. 

By the time the two boys went to sleep Sun- 
day night they had become fast friends. It 
was arranged that the model of the bird-tail 
propeller was to be sent to Andy^s father in 
St. Paul that he might consult a patent law- 
yer concerning it. The boys were not so clear 
about the engine. 

Roy had really no power to buy it outright 
for Mr. Atkinson before consulting that gen- 
tlemen. But he told Andy that he felt sure 
his employer would be eager to get the motor. 
Mr. Atkinson, he felt sure, would send his 
motor superintendent down to look at the 
engine, and Andy, in turn, assumed the power 
to give Roy and his friends an option on the 
engine, subject to examination. Andy was 
careful to secure Captain Anderson’s ap- 
proval of these negotiations. 

‘‘Have it your own way,” Captain Ander- 
son said. “I reckon your father and I can 
settle it between us when I see him.” 


•148 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

Four times on Monday did the Pelican make 
successful ascents. On the last one, at two 
o’clock, Andy made his first flight alone. So 
far as his anxious observers could see, his 
operation of the car was in no way different 
from that of young Oshome. At least, the 
moment Andy alighted, Eoy slapped him on 
the back and said: 

‘‘I guess I ’m not needed longer. You can 
teach someone else now. ’ ’ 

And, despite the regrets of his new friends, 
the young aviator hoarded the night train for 
Lake Worth, each hoy agreeing to write to the 
other, and Eoy promising to send his latest 
pupil an aneroid barometer and an anemome- 
ter as soon as he reached Newark. 

That night, as on the two previous nights, 
the strange Ba watched the new aeroplane. 
The next morning Captain Anderson sug- 
gested that the rudder, landing skis, and en- 
gine he detached and the frame and parts 
housed in the shop until the possible arrival of 
the motor expert from the north. 

Andy entered a protest at once. 

should say not,” he said; ‘‘that is, un- 
less you insist. I want to make a real flight.” 

“That ’s why I want to take it apart,” con- 


A Cruise in the Sky 


149 


fessed the captain frankly. knew you 
want to keep it up.’’ 

‘‘You ’re not afraid of my breaking it, are 
you?” queried the boy. 

“I ’m only afraid of your breaking your 
neck. ’ ’ 

“Were you afraid Osborne would break his 
neck?” 

“That ’s different — he ’s an expert.” 

“ ‘Expert’, ” repeated Andy. “I ’ll be an 
expert when I ’ve had the practice. And how 
will I get it? Not by readin’ about airships.” 

“Settle it with your mother,” exclaimed the 
captain. “I certainly won’t object, if she 
don’t.” 

Although Andy’s head was now brimming 
full of his great, but sleeping, project, he was 
not yet ready to consult his mother about it. 
As another step in his great plan, however, he 
obtained permission to go to his uncle’s house, 
one of the conditions being that he was to 
bring back some fruit. Although Ba had been 
watchman for three nights, none knew when 
he slept. And as soon as Andy got out the 
Red Bird*s oars, the negro made ready to 
accompany him. 

Andy’s mind was on other things, but he 


150 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

never neglected an opportunity to talk to the 
Bahaman. Usually he approached the subject 
diplomatically. That morning on the way to 
Goat Creek, he was out of sorts. Therefore, 
and much to his own surprise, he blurted out: 

‘‘Why donT you tell me about that Tim- 
bado place, Ba? What are you afraid ofU’ 

For a moment the colored man gave no sign 
in face or gesture that he heard. Then, as in 
the past, his lips began to twitch and his nar- 
row brow grew narrower. 

“You ain’t go on dat Timbado?’’ he re- 
peated, his usual slow-witted question. 

“Sure I am,” answered Andy perversely. 
“Why not? I ’m thinkin’ of goin’ right over 
there.” 

There was no outward change in the black 
man’s bearing, but the boy could see that some 
emotion was affecting him within. They had 
reached Goat Creek, and, as the little boat 
passed into the currentless channel, Ba ceased 
rowing. 

“Marse Andy,” he began in a husky voice, 
“Ah done bin on dat Timbado — ^white men 
don’ go dar.” 

“7 ’m thinkin’ of goin’,” exclaimed Andy, 
hoping to draw out the colored man. 


A Cruise in the Shy 


151 


Ba looked at him long and intently. 

‘‘Yo’ ain^t know de big white man in An- 
dros — Cap’n Bassett 

Andy knew that Andros was one of the Ba- 
hama ^‘out islands’^ and that more than one 
white man lived there, plantation owners. 

^‘An Englishman?’’ asked the hoy. 

‘‘Cap’n Bassett done took me on de boat 
when Ah brnk out de jail in Nassau.” 

‘‘And took you to Timbado?” asked Andy 
eagerly, overjoyed to find at last some inkling 
of Ba’s story. 

The colored man shook his head. 

“Two crops Ah wuk on Andros. Ben dey 
sunt me to it. ’ ’ 

“Captain Bassett sent you to Timbado?” 

A gulp came in the colored man’s throat and 
he simply nodded his head. 

“What for?” 

“Wid Nicholas an’ Thomas — dey ain’t 
never git away.” 

“Ba,” exclaimed Andy sharply, “why did 
you go to Timbado?” 

“Yo’ ain’t nebber hear ’bout Timbado?” 

“I never heard of Timbado — ” 

“Cap’n Bassett tole us to steal it.” 

“Steal what?” 


152 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


“Yo’ ain’t nebber hear ’bout dat big pearl!” 

^‘You mean that Captain Bassett sent you 
and two other men to steal a big pearl?” asked 
Andy breathlessly. 

‘‘Ah done see it, but Nicholas and Thomas 
dey don’ see it.” 

“Saw a big pearl!” 

“Like dat,” said Ba suddenly, leaning for- 
ward and holding out his heavy thumb. “An’ 
like de conch look.” 

“A pink pearl as big as your thumb?” ques- 
tioned Andy, his voice dropping into a whis- 
per. 

“Dat ’s fetich,” was the frightened answer. 
“Ain’t no white man see dat big pearl.” 

“And you stole it for Captain Bassett!” 
went on the boy excitedly. 

The frightened Bahaman shook his head 
again. 

“What happened!” persisted his compan- 
ion. “Tell me!” 

“Ah ain’t nebber see dat Nicholas. Ah 
ain’t nebber see dat Thomas no mo’.” 

“And you!” insisted Andy. “Did you get 
the pearl ! ’ ’ 

The oarsman’s hands were trembling. It 
was evident that in his half-savage way, he 


A Cruise in the Shy 


153 


was trying to recall what happened or to think 
of words to describe it. Again he shook his 
head, and then suddenly drew the oars into 
the boat and shipped them. His month twitch- 
ing and his eyelids trembling, he caught his 
loose shirt with both hands and drew it up to 
his shoulders. At the same time, he turned on 
the seat. 

His great, muscle-knotted back was seamed 
with a mass of scars. Long and deep wounds 
that had turned white in the healing crossed 
his flesh from his neck to his waist. 

Andy shrank back. The persistency with 
which he had forced the African into this rev- 
elation covered him with shame. 

^^Yo’ ainT goin’ on dat Timhado Key, is 
yo’f'^ 

It was Ba’s last appeal. 

For answer, Andy could only touch the agi- 
tated man sympathetically on his knee and 
turn away. It seemed t6 satisfy the colored 
man, an^ from that moment, ashamed of his 
idle curiosity, Andy said no more. 

But as he watched the stolid face of the 
black Hercules, his imagination carried him 
far from Goat Creek. The ignorant negro be- 
came the center of a wild romance. What did it 


154 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

mean? A fugitive from justice carried away 
from Nassau by an Englishman; kept in his 
service for a time and then sent with two others 
to steal a big pink pearl ; two of the men disap- 
pear, one of them sees the fetich jewel big as 
a man’s thumb and pink ‘‘like a conch,” a 
priceless treasure; then the cruel wounds that 
must have meant death to any but a man like 
Ba. 

Little wonder that Andy had small thought 
for anything else that morning. Landing at 
his uncle’s place, he sent Ba to the grove for 
the fruit, then sat a long time trying to com- 
pose himself. Try as he might, to put the 
weird tale out of his mind, he could not. Fi- 
nally he entered the house and feverishly 
sought through the bookshelves until he found 
an atlas. 

After a long search he closed the book with 
a sigh of relief. He could not find Timbado 
Key. 

“I ’m glad of it,” he admitted to himself. 
“It may be only a crazy tale of Ba’s, but I ’ve 
had enough. Back to the aeroplane for me.” 

The Teal thing that had brought Andy to his 
uncle’s place that day was to examine a gaso- 
line barrel which stood behind the shop. The 


A Cruise in the Sky 


155 


oil used in all their flights so far had been se- 
cured in Melbourne, Captain Anderson hav- 
ing ordered it by telephone before consulting 
the boy. 

Andy was overjoyed to find the barrel at 
least half full. There were no vessels suitable 
for carrying any of it back, but there were 
wood-encased tins at Captain Anderson’s, and, 
satisfied with his discovery, the boy made 
ready to depart. Before he did so, he made a 
careful and significant examination of the open 
space on the gentle incline in front of the 
house, nodded his head approvingly, and, 
locking the house again, entered the boat. 

On the way home the boy was moodily silent, 
a strange caprice for him. But he had sud- 
denly reached a point where he was disturbed 
by doubts. He had been in Florida two weeks, 
but seemed to have lived months in his unex- 
pected and sudden experience, and he was now 
debating whether it was to end as suddenly in 
nothing but a boyish fancy or to be the turn- 
ing point in his young life. 

He was positive that never again might such 
a glorious opportunity present itself to him to 
make a name for himself. His few days with 
Eoy Osborne had fired him with an ambition 


156 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

to achieve something out of the ordinary. The 
question was — should he give his parents the 
opportunity to crush his ambitions (and he 
knew he would never disobey their instruc- 
tions), or should he win their later approval 
by carrying out his secret plan without their 
knowledge ? 

With scarcely a word to Ba, Andy lay in 
the stem of the boat and thought. But the 
more he thought, the further away seemed the 
solution of his problem. Still lost in doubt, 
the Red Bird touched Captain Anderson’s 
pier. 

‘‘Cap’n Anderson’s gone off in the de Val- 
kar\^^ said Ba. 

It was true. Hastening to the house, Andy 
found it deserted. The boathouse was closed. 
On the door of the bungalow was a scrap of 
paper. It read: 

**Your father is at Melbourne, Telephoned 
us. We *ve gone for him. Dinner in the pan- 
try. Back this evening. 


Anderson.*^ 


CHAPTEE XIV 


ANDY TAKES A DARING CHANCE 

Andy read the note, re-read it, walked to the 
edge of the gallery and looked np and down 
the wide river. His face was pale. Then he 
consulted his watch. It was fifteen minutes 
after twelve o’clock. 

^‘Ah reckon dey all gib yo’ de go hy,” said 
Ba, with a laugh. 

Instead of replying, Andy turned and en- 
tered the house. On the kitchen table was his 
luncheon. Evidently this was not in the boy’s 
mind at that moment. In the living room, he 
went to the chart-rack and took down the map 
of the Bahama Islands. 

Spreading it out on the table, he weighted 
the ends, and sat for a few moments, his eyes 
fixed upon it and his chin in his hands. Then 
with a pencil and a bit of cardboard for a 
ruler, he drew lines at right angles through 
the mouth of Goat Creek and the westernmost 
end of the Grand Bahama Banks. Following 
the horizontal lines to the nearest degrees 
marked on the chart, he had the latitude of 
157 


158 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

each point. The same operation with the ver- 
tical lines gave him the longitude. 

These degrees, minutes, and seconds, he 
wrote down in his memorandum book in this 
form: 

Goat Creek North Lat. 27® 57» 30” — W. Long. 80® 37' 30" 
Grand Banks North Lat. 26° 45' — W. Long. 78° 54' 

1® 12' 30" 1° 43' 30" 


The subtraction showed him the ditference 
between the two points in degrees of latitude 
and longitude. Andy had no tables to show 
him the exact number of geographic miles in 
a degree of latitude or longitude in that part 
of the world. But, with the knowledge that a 
degree of either was practically seventy miles 
at the equator, he computed the number at 
fifty miles. 

The boy was fresh enough in his mathemat- 
ics to know that the hypotenuse of a rectangle 
eighty-six miles by sixty-one miles would he 
approximately — not allowing for the curva- 
ture of the earth — one hundred miles. Amd 
this he set down as the distance between Cap- 
tain Anderson’s dock and the nearest Bahama 
land. 

There was no time wasted in speculation on 


^ Cruise in the Sky 


159 


this point. Andy had evidently come to a de- 
cision, and he was working directly to a spe- 
cific end. With the chart yet before him, he 
went to the mantel, where, close beside the 
captain’s binoculars, always rested a small 
compass. Squaring the chart sheet with the 
north and south line of the compass, Andy 
laid the compass directly over the mouth of 
Goat Creek. Then he extended his bit of card- 
board from the center of the compass to the 
tip of the Bahama Bank. 

The edge of the card cut the compass along 
the S.E. by S. line. That was a course. With 
another note of this under his latitude and 
longitude, the boy sprang up, folded the chart 
into a square to fit his pocket, dropped the 
compass into another pocket, and smiled ner- 
vously. 

‘‘I reckon I ’d better eat something,” he 
said. 

Returning to the kitchen, he partook of a 
slice of cold ham, some bread and butter, and 
a big drink of water. As he started to leave, 
he again paused with the same nervous smile. 
This time he took half an apple pie, the re- 
mainder of the ham, a few slices of bread, and 
filled a glass fruit jar with water. Passing 


160 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

through the house again, he stopped at his 
trunk and secured a light-weight sweater and 
a pair of gloves. Then he passed out onto the 
gallery, and on the bottom of the paper still 
hanging on the door, he wrote : 

Captain Anderson: Excuse my talcing 
your map and compass and pie and ham. To 
my mother: I ^m off on a trip in the aeroplane. 
BonH worry, 1 H he back to-morrow or send 
word soon. Good-bye. 

Andy.^^ 

A few minutes later the hoy had the tar- 
paulin off the engine. There was a close ex- 
amination of the motor, oil cups were newly 
filled, and a can of lubricator was tied to one 
of the stanchions. An empty gasoline tank 
was made fast in the passenger seat, and in a 
light basket attached to a second stanchion, 
the busy lad deposited his sweater, water bot- 
tle, luncheon, a hatchet, a box of matches, a 
small hank of seine cord, some screws, wire, 
and a screw-driver. Then he lashed to the 
middle-section lower struts a bundle of spruce 
strips suitable for repairing the frame of the 
car. 


A Cruise in the 8hy 


161 


gwine fly awayT’ asked Ba, when 
'Andy’s preparations finally suggested this to 
the dull-witted black. 

^‘See this, Ba?” answered the boy, touching 
the empty gasoline tin. ’m goin’ up to my 
uncle’s place to fill this tank.” 

This was true, but only in part. The mo- 
ment Andy had found his mother and his hosts 
absent, he had instantly conceived the idea of 
making a flight to the shop on the hill to secure 
more gasoline. When his face whitened out 
on the gallery, this idea had given birth to an- 
other one — ^he would do this, and if all seemed 
well, he would steel himself to take the great 
chance of his life. If ever, this was the time 
to tempt fate with his big idea. It might even 
mean death, but Andy put that possibility 
aside. He saw only the opportunity to win 
fame and reputation; to become a Eoy Os- 
borne or a Walter Brookins. 

With the help of the colored man, Andy got 
the aeroplane out on the sand beach and 
persuaded his assistant to become his human 
anchor. At his uncle’s house he would have a 
hill on which to pick up his momentum. The 
boy looked at his watch — it was three minutes 
after one o’clock. 


162 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


There was another delay while the vigilant 
would-be aviator made further preparations. 
With a cord, he tied his watch, facing him, on 
the nearest stanchion, and with four long 
screws made a little pocket on the lower beam 
of the car beneath his legs, in which he depos- 
ited his compass. 

“Good-bye, Ba,’’ he exclaimed, these details 
completed, as he held out his hand. 

The colored man touched his forehead in sa- 
lute, and then clumsily gave the boy his pow- 
erful hand. 

“Yo^ gwine come right back?” he asked. 

But the boy did not reply. He was already 
starting the engine, and Ba fell to his task of 
holding the car. There was neither a break 
nor miss in the engine, and as the dust settled 
over the grim-set negro, Andy crawled into 
his seat. 

“Hold her!” he exclaimed sharply, and 
once more the engine sprang into action. 
Faster and faster it flew, but the trembling, 
tugging ear was safe in Ba’s powerful grip. 

“All right!” shouted Andy at last, and 
while Ba fell back, the Pelican was cluttering 
over the beach with the quick roll of a sand 
snipe. Then she took the air. Andy did not 


A Cruise in the Sky 


163 


wait for altitude. As soon as he felt that the 
rushing air had his car on its breast, he began 
his turn, mounting as he did so. 

It was but a moment or so until the aero- 
plane swept over the pier, having turned and 
headed north. As it approached the boat land- 
ing on which Ba had taken up his anxious 
watch, the boy dropped the car until it was 
not over fifty feet above the river. 

‘‘Wait here, Ba, I ^11 be back in a few 
minutes. ’ ’ 

The ease with which the car worked elated 
Andy. That he might not become over confi- 
dent and to see if everything was all right, he 
began to mount again at once. He seemed to 
fall into the trick naturally. Before Goat 
Creek was reached, he was nearly a thousand 
feet above the river. Then, taking the turn 
and dip like a veteran, and without the slight- 
est fear, Andy headed the aerial craft for the 
house on the hill. 

The landing was made a little abruptly, but 
nothing was broken. Pushing the machine to 
the top of the hill, the boy turned it, and, 
throwing off his coat, began the work of refill- 
ing his engine gasoline tank and getting the 
extra can aboard. 


164 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

Then he entered the house, wrote a note, 
which he addressed to his mother, locked the 
place and put the key in the envelope with his 
note. This time he buttoned up his coat and 
reversed his cap as Eoy Osborne had done, for, 
from the time he made this ascension, he would 
have neither time nor opportunity to do any- 
thing but direct his car at untried heights, 
over unknown land and sea to fame and glory. 
He did not stop to think of anything else. 

From the time his engine started and the 
big propellers began to revolve, he was sorry 
that he had not brought Ba along to hold the 
car until it had begun to feel the pressure of 
the air. With nearly the first motion of the 
propellers, the aeroplane began to move for- 
ward and slowly descend the hill. The new 
angle seemed to prevent the planes from catch- 
ing the air, and, as the frame gathered mo- 
mentum and continued to rumble along over 
the dry grass, Andy pushed his engine in vain. 

The wheels seemed as if running on a track. 
Like a flash, an idea came to the alarmed ope- 
rator, and as he shut off the engine, Andy put 
on the wheel brake. Just at the base of the hill 
and in front of the hummock swamp, the Peli- 
can was brought to a stop. 


A Cruise in the Sky 


165 


‘‘Escape number one/^ said Andy, “and my 
own experience number one.’’ 

Then, laboriously and slowly, he managed 
to get the wide, balanced frame up the slope' 
again and to the top of the hill. 

“I ’m in fine shape now,” thought Andy, 
the perspiration oozing from him and his mus- 
cles all a tremble, “but there ain’t any choice.” 

He delayed only long enough to get a drink, 
to wipe his face, and readjust his coat, then 
once again he mounted his seat. This time his 
first act was to put on the wheel brake. Then 
he opened his engine and, to his relief, found 
the car holding while the propellers got into 
action. 

When at last the powerful propelling screws 
began to tilt the car forward and the rear 
bird-tail guide began to lift itself from the 
ground, the alert aviator released the brake, 
and once again the fragile frame started down 
the hill. But this time he could feel it jump- 
ing at once, and when he gave it the upward 
rudder, the hurtling craft immediately re- 
sponded. Like a soaring bird, it took the air 
and was off. 

It was but a few moments until the Anderson 
bungalow was in sight, and Andy headed di- 


166 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

rectly for it. Dropping a little, lie got ont his 
envelope containing the message to his mother 
and placed it between his knees. He did not 
attempt to call to the colored man, bnt when 
he was nearly over the still waiting and appar- 
ently transfixed Ba, the boy opened bis knees 
and the envelope flattered down. 

The paper fell in the water, bnt the colored 
man rescued it and then stood for a long time 
gazing at the aeroplane growing smaller in the 
distance. Honrs before Captain Anderson’s 
Valkaria reached the pier that evening, the 
Pelican was ont of sight. And the last that 
the vigilant negro saw of it was as it faded 
into the southeast sky. 

Even the stupid Ba knew that the message 
he had in his shirt would mean a wild commo- 
tion among the passengers who alighted from 
the Valkaria, For a time he held aloof, wait- 
ing to speak to Captain Anderson alone. It 
was wholly dark when Mr. and Mrs. Leighton 
and Captain and Mrs. Anderson reached the 
house. 

A few minutes later the two men rushed 
from the cottage, while two women followed 
behind with wild exclamations. Ba thrust his 
message into Captain Anderson’s hands and 
disappeared in the night. Andy’s note read: 


A Cruise in the Sky 


167 


** Bulletin No, 1, Took more gasoline at 
Leighton^ s shop at eight minutes after one. 
Weather fair, with light southwest wind. 
Started for Grand Bahama Banks on Pelican 
at 1:12 P,M, Hope to reach Nassau, New 
Providence, to-morrow after stop on Grcmde 
Banks, Will report hy wire on reaching des- 
tination. Am well and confident. Love to all. 

Andy.^* 

J1 the foolhardy boy could have witnessed 
the scene that followed in the Anderson home, 
he would have abandoned his aviation ideas on 
the spot. In an hour the philosophy and ar- 
guments of Mr. Leighton and Captain Ander- 
son began to calm Andy’s mother in a degree, 
and then those concerned proceeded to make 
what plans they could to accomplish, if pos- 
sible, the boy’s rescue, for it seemed to be 
conceded that even then he must be verging on 
destruction, if indeed he were not already lost. 

At Captain Anderson’s suggestion. Lake 
Worth was immediately called by telephone, 
and the Nassau Steamer Company was asked 
to notify its steamers in transit by wireless of 
Andy’s flight. He would probably be north of 
their course, but they were asked to keep a 


168 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

lookout. They were also asked to repeat the 
message to Nassau, that spongers and fish 
boats leaving port might also be on the watch. 

‘‘He may change his mind,’^ argued the 
captain, “and make a landing far down the 
peninsula, without putting out to sea. If he 
does, he will be in a wilderness.’’ 

Mr. and Mrs. Leighton were so agitated that 
they could not even protest when the captain, 
a little later, determined to set out in the Val- 
karia at once and proceed down the river. It 
was one hundred and thirty miles, at least, 
from the captain’s home to Lake Worth. 
There were little settlements here and there 
on the mainland side of the river and a wilder- 
ness for the entire distance on the peninsula 
side, where a strip of palmetto scrub and sand 
separated the sea from the river. 

The captain’s plan was to sail at once, se- 
cure a couple of men at each settlement, carry 
them across the river, and start them north 
and south along the ocean in search of a pos- 
sible wreck of the Pelican. At the next town 
this would be repeated. By the following 
evening he hoped to cover a good part of the 
wild country in this manner. 

Beyond this, there was nothing that could 


A Cruise in the Shy 


169 


be done. In the honse of desolation Andy’s 
parents waited sorrowfully for some word. 
At nine o’clock the captain had sailed, Ba, as 
usual, showing up in time to join him. 
Through the night there was no news. Cap- 
tain Anderson reported about nine o’clock the 
next morning from far down the river. There 
was no sign of wreck or trace of the missing 
boy. 

The steamer arrived that day at Lake 
Worth with a report of nothing seen. Wednes- 
day and Thursday went by with no word. 
Thursday morning Captain Anderson re- 
turned up river by train, Ba bringing the boat 
later. Thursday evening at six o’clock came 
a telephone call from Melbourne — a cable mes- 
sage from New York. It read: 

Andros 1 stand y via Nassau, New Provi- 
dence, by boat. Safe. Record Grande Banks. 
Here noon to-day. O.K, Leave few days 
steamer. Andy.*^ 

The enigmatic message was hard to read, but 
the last word was enough. 

^‘Anyway,” sobbed Mrs. Leighton, ‘^he ’s 
coming back by boat.” 


170 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

But the next boat and the next arrived at 
Lake Worth from Nassau without Andy, and 
then in desperation his parents took farewell 
of Captain and Mrs. Anderson and journeyed 
to that resort to await their son. 


CHAPTEE XV 


TIMBADO KEY AND CAPTAIN MONOKTON BASSETT 

From the moment Andy dropped his mes- 
sage to Ba, he had no time for thought of those 
he had left behind. For three or four miles 
he shot straight down the river at a height of 
about four hundred feet. In that time his first 
nervousness lessened. He made ready to be- 
gin his flight over the water. 

The compass course he had laid was almost 
S.E. by S. His first alarming discovery was 
that his compass would be of almost no use. 
The vibration of the frame and the constant 
alteration of his level in ascending and de- 
scending so agitated the needle that it was al- 
ways in motion. 

^‘That ain’t goin’ to stop me,” he said at 
once. There ’s land everywhere over there 
to the southeast. I ’ll hit something some- 
where sometime.” 

Laying a general course by the sun, he veered 
to the southeast. The moment he passed out 
over the ocean, the air changed. The move- 
ment of it was less regular, and Andy knew it 

171 


172 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

was due to the counter-current of cooler water 
sent southward by the northward-flowing gulf 
stream. Steadying the car, he began to as- 
cend. At a thousand feet, the lower eddies 
disappeared, and he felt the steady southwest 
breeze reasserting itself. 

Taking advantage of this, as a ship tacks, 
he steadied the car again. Up to that moment 
every second had been one of activity; both 
hands had been busy, and every sense was 
alert. As the aeroplane now fell into a long, 
almost motionless glide — with nothing to mark 
its progress but the whistling wind — for the 
water beneath gave him no measure of flight — 
the boy discovered that his muscles were 
already partly numb from the strain. 

As best he could, he relaxed his tension — 
exercised his feet, legs, fingers, and arms. 
But the attempt to relax his arms brought his 
second big discovery — when soaring on an 
even keel at high speed, the slightest move- 
ment of the rudder may instantly cost many 
minutes of hard climbing upward. 

Attempting to steady the control lever with 
his left hand, there was a slight pull to the left 
and back. As the responsive ship answered 
her double helm and veered to the left and 


A Cruise in the Sky 173 

down, Andy thrust the lever back, changed 
hands, and his benumbed fingers for a moment 
refused to act. 

Shaking itself, under the confiicting move- 
ments, the Pelican wavered and then leaped 
to the right and down. Aghast, the nervous 
boy saw the sea — the shore already out of 
sight — apparently rising to meet and grasp 
him. Paralyzed for a moment, Andy gave in- 
stant proof that he was a born aviator. 

Withdrawing his eyes from the sea and 
bringing all his will power to stamp out his 
sudden panic, he did two things with hardly 
the operation of thinking. Setting his teeth 
and forcing his eyes on the stanchion at his 
side to get his line, with both hands — and as 
carefully as if he had minutes for the work — 
he brought the control lever to a vertical posi- 
tion, and at right angles with the beam to 
which it was attached. 

His intuition told him he could do no more. 
And it was enough. With a long, gliding, 
downward sweep the car sped on and at last 
began to move forward on an even keel. His 
eyes yet fixed on the lever only, he gradually 
drew it vertically toward him, and, when the 
check in the forward speed told him he was 


174 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

ascending again, looked below. He was not 
over three hundred feet from the almost wave- 
less sea, and he had dashed downward seven 
hundred feet. 

understand now what they mean when 
they kick about long flights,’^ said the boy to 
himself. ‘Ht ain’t the nerves — it ’s the mus- 
cles. You Ve just kind o’ got to hold this 
thing on its course — anyway she ain’t goin’ 
to run herself.” 

When he figured himself to be about a thou- 
sand feet in the air, once more Andy looked 
at his watch. It was 1:30 o’clock. He had 
been gone twenty-two minutes. He almost 
groaned. Osborne had estimated the maxi- 
mum speed of the Pelican at forty-two miles 
an hour. He was surely going at his best; he 
was already tired, and since he had not cov- 
ered quite fifteen miles, he had the hardest 
part of his voyage before him. 

Since there was no relief, he must stand it, 
and he did. He now kept the aeroplane at the 
thousand-foot level, as nearly as he could esti- 
mate it. The engine never wavered, and fi- 
nally he was able to ignore it. The boy’s eyes 
grew hot and began to pain him, and he was 
no longer conscious of power to move his right 


A Cruise in the Shy 


175 


hand, when — and the slowly-creeping minntes 
seemed endless — at 2 :51 o ’clock he caught sight 
of a thin white line on the horizon. 

The boy knew at once that this mnst be land. 
Whether or not it was the land he had started 
for — the Grande Banks — ^made no difference. 
Confidence returned with the knowledge that 
he had a goal to aim for, and in that assurance 
he took his first moments to reason. He had 
done a foolhardy thing, and now he meant to 
bring his perilous flight to an end as soon as 
possible. 

What the place might be he neither knew 
nor cared ; his wind-swept eyes burning and his 
spent muscles rigid, he was conscious only of 
the line of white. As it rose and widened, he 
hardly knew how or when he altered the course 
of the plane. But at last, with an effort that 
he was fearful he could not make — when the 
white rolled out beneath him — ^he shut off the 
engine. At 3 :35 P.M., the rubber landing 
wheels were bounding over the glaring white 
of a shell-strewn beach. 

The exhausted boy still sat in his seat, mo- 
tionless, his head on his breast and his fingers 
yet grasping the idle lever. He had carried 
out his great idea, reached the Bahamas in an 
aeroplane, but with nothing to spare. 


176 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

Until Andy was able to get the numbness 
out of his limbs, he gave no thought to his sur- 
roundings. At last, creeping stiffly from the 
machine, he found that he had achieved his 
ambition: the smooth, wide beach, chalk- white 
from minute shells, the softly surging sea 
shaded into all colors of blue by shallow bars 
and outlying keys, the distant ridge of green 
through which, here and there, palms rose and 
spread their umbrella-like foliage, all told him 
that he was at last in the tropics. But where? 

When he could, he made his way to the 
water’s edge. A star-fish lay at his feet. He 
grasped it as another boy might have caught 
up a nugget of gold. Then another object 
rolled in on the swell. At the first sight of it, 
the boy smiled. Then the smile disappeared, 
and he sprang forward and secured the float- 
ing object. It was an opened tin that had con- 
tained English orange marmalade. 

‘^From some passing steamer,” thought 
Andy. Then he saw that the label on the can 
was not yet loosened by the water. ^‘It has n’t 
been floatin’ long, though,” he added. ‘‘Looks 
as if some Englishman isn’t far away.” 

Ahead of him the beach curved into what 
seemed to be a bay. The Pelican was high 


A Cruise in the Shy 


177 


above the water, and there was no living thing 
in sight that might molest it. Glad of an op- 
portunity to get some exercise, Andy began 
trotting along the beach. Far to the south, 
beyond a belt of reefs and smaller keys, he 
could just make out other lines of white, — 
other islands, no doubt, but nowhere was there 
a sail in sight. 

‘‘But I guess there ’s someone nearby, and 
an Englishman at that, ’ ’ speculated Andy. 
“Since he isn^t in sight, he must be in the 
cove behind the point. 

When the boy reached the turn in the shore, 
he was astounded to see just the opposite of 
the solitude in which he had alighted. At the 
bottom of the bay, where a group of cocoa 
palms hung almost over the water, the sight 
of a thatched hut met his eye. In front of it, 
and anchored several hundred yards out in 
the cove, was a trim schooner, her sails furled 
and a white awning covering her deck. Here 
and there over the wide bay were small boats, 
in each of which he could see two and some- 
times three black men, naked to the waist. 

“They ’re divin’ for sponges or tongin’ 
’em,” said Andy to himself as the old geog- 
raphy pictures came into his mind. Before 


178 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


he could feast his eyes further with the pic- 
ture-like scene, he was startled to hear a voice. 
At the same moment a white man, in white 
duck and a Panama hat, stepped from the 
shade of the palms lining the beach. 

‘‘How ’d do?” exclaimed the man in a de- 
cided English accent. “Did you just alight in 
an aeroplane?” 

“You saw me?” exclaimed Andy. 

“I was on my schooner and watched you for 
a long time with the glass. Come across from 
Florida ? ’ ’ 

“Yes,” answered the boy. “What place is 
this?” 

“One of the Grande Banks,” replied the 
stranger, “generally speaking. To be precise, 
you have your choice of several local names. 
Mine, for this, is Palm Tree Cove, I believe.” 

“My name is Leighton — Andrew Leighton. 
I thought I ’d try it to see if I could. Now, 
I Ve got to get word to my folks that I ^m all 
right, and get back. ’ ^ 

Meanwhile the Englishman had shaken 
Andy’s hand. 

“That ’s not so easy,” he answered, laugh- 
ing. “The place is uninhabited; it ’s off the 
steamer route. I don’t belong here; we ’re 


A Cruise in the Shy 


179 


prospecting the pearl and sponge bottoms. 
I ’m from Andros. We dl be leaving in a day 
or so. You can go with us. I ’ll send you to 
Nassau, or send word for you — you can cable.” 

‘‘You live on Andros Island?” 

“I have fruit lands there and sisal.” 

“I ’m sure I ’m obliged,” began Andy. 
“It ’s good of you. I haven’t any money.” 

The man laughed. 

“I shall be delighted to have you as my 
guest,” he said, still smiling. “And if you 
are in a hurry, I ’ll take you over to-night. ’ ’ 

“I ’m not in a hurry to leave this,” began 
Andy, sweeping his arm about to include the 
cameo-like bay. “But you can understand: 
I hadn’t permission to come, and, if I had, I 
suppose my parents would be worrying until 
they heard from me.” 

“Not unlikely,” said the man in white. “I 
think you ought to go at once, or send word. 
Any little excitement of this kind is enjoyable. 
If you don’t mind, I ’d like to have a look at 
your flying machine — I ’ve never seen one, as 
you can imagine. I rarely go even to Nassau 
— lived on Andros twenty years.” 

Glad to act as showman, Andy led his new 
friend back along the beach to the Pelican, In 


180 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

the short trip he related how he came to be in 
possession of the aeroplane, how it was made, 
and finally he told of his parents, his late 
uncle, and of Captain Anderson. Beaching 
the car he explained it in detail, and then while 
the Englishman stood back as if to feast his 
eyes on the wonder, Andy said: 

^ ‘ If you don ^t mind, I dl have a bite of lunch 
an'd a drink. 

As if embarrassed, the stranger raised his 
hand. 

‘‘Excuse me, my boy — I might have known. 
Can’t you postpone your refreshment until we 
can reach my schooner?” 

Andy thought a moment. 

“I don’t like to leave the machine here — I 
think I ’ll make a little flight and take it around 
in the cove.” 

“Excellent,” agreed the man. “I ’ll be 
proud,” he went on, with a smile and bowing, 
“to be host to both the aeroplane and the 
aviator. And I ’ll watch — ” 

A mischievous look came into Andy’s eyes. 
Some distance ahead of him the hard beach 
reached back over a gentle incline that made 
its way like a wide road between the fence-like 


cocoas. 


A Cruise in the Sky 


181 


^11 have to get the car up there,’’ he said, 
get up momentum. Do you mind giving 
me a hand?” 

‘‘Delighted, I ’m sure,” answered the fruit 
grower. ‘ ‘ It will probably be my first and last 
experience with such a vehicle.” 

Andy’s twinkle spread into a smile. When 
the Pelican had been pushed to the top of the 
slope and was ready for a new flight, he 
crawled to his seat. The white-costumed man 
was backing away, watching every detail. As 
soon as he was seated, Andy loosened the cords 
holding the tin of gasoline on the extra seat 
and asked his affable host if he would put it 
aside where he might get it later. 

“I ’d think you ’d carry it with you,” sug- 
gested the stranger, as he obligingly complied. 

“I would,” answered Andy, “but I want the 
seat. Jump in.” 

“Me?” exclaimed the man. “On that?” 

“I just crossed the gulf stream, a thousand 
feet up,” answered the boy. 

“I — I didn’t know it would carry two,” be- 
gan the man, who seemed more surprised than 
alarmed. 

“It has,” answered the boy. “Come on.” 

The surprise of the man turned instantly 


182 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

into open delight. He crawled into the seat, 
and almost before he was settled, the proud 
and now confident Andy had shot his pride and 
joy seaward, skimmed one low roller, and was 
mounting skyward as if the machine were 
elated over its extra burden. 

It was not over a mile to the head of the 
cove and the cabin beneath the pahns, but the 
conditions made a direct flight thither impos- 
sible. Assured of his ability to control the 
powerful machine, Andy sent her mounting up 
and up in a long spiral. 

‘‘Delightful!’’ said the man at his side at 
last. “I ’m charmed.” 

To the boy’s surprise, there was no trace 
of nervousness nor fear in his passenger’s 
voice. 

“I think we ’re nearly one thousand two 
hundred feet high now,” said Andy. 

“I think so, or more,” was the passenger’s 
answer. “Can you look about? The view is 
superb.” The aeroplane, which had risen in 
circles above the cove, now commanded a wide 
view of white-margined islands, reefs, and 
channels. “Far over there to the left,” went 
on the Englishman, “although you can scarcely 
see it, is a bit of rock with a strange history. 
It is known as Timbado Key.” 



*^JuMP In,” Said Andy. 





A Cruise in the Shy 


185 


There was a slight lurch of the car, and the 
passenger started. 

‘‘Anything wrong?’’ he exclaimed. 

“Nothing,” answered Andy. “I was trying 
to look. But this Timbado?” 

“It ’s a story,” answered his companion — 
“one that has never been written. I ’ll tell it 
you this evening. ’ ’ 

Instantly, and for the first time since he had 
landed, the tragic tale of Ba, the colored man, 
rushed into Andy’s thoughts. Startled by his 
unexpected proximity to the scene of Ba’s hor- 
rible experience, his hand had moved and the 
machine had wavered. Then, as the frag- 
mentary story came hack to him, he recalled 
this important detail of it — the man who had 
sent the simple, half savage Ba to steal the 
great pink pearl was “an English captain who 
lived on Andros Island.” 

“Thank you,” answered the boy at last. 
“I ’ll be glad to hear it, Mr. — ” 

“Pardon me,” said the man instantly; 
“didn’t I mention my name? I am Captain 
Monckton Bassett.” 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE CANNIBAL, KING AND THE PINK PEARL 

The swift tropic night had fallen, and the 
black sky was aglow with winking stars — min- 
iature moons that turned key, reef, and water 
into a phosphorescent glow. Out of the silence 
came only the weird songs of the black boat- 
men gathered about the camp fire at the hut 
under the palms. On the schooner the evening 
meal was over, and Andy sat almost lost in 
dreams, while his host drew on his after-din- 
ner cigar. 

When Andy and Captain Bassett had 
landed, after their aerial flight into the cove, 
it was nearly dusk. The boy suggested that he 
would at once dismantle his machine and take 
it aboard the schooner, to be carried to his 
host ^8 home on Andros Island, and thence to 
Nassau and the steamer. After his nerve- 
wrecking flight in the afternoon, he did not 
feel equal to another sky voyage of perhaps 
one hundred and fifty miles. 

At this, the Englishman made a peculiar 
request. 


186 


A Cruise in the Shy 


187 


‘‘I wish you wouldn’t take it apart for a 
little while.” 

‘‘Then it isn’t convenient to sail to-night?” 
said Andy, “But, just as you like.” 

It had been agreed that the schooner was to 
set sail for distant Andros as soon as the moon 
rose. 

“Yes,” answered the man slowly. “But 
I ’ve been thinking of something. I can’t quite 
make up my mind — I ’d like to talk to you 
about it after a bit. Then we ’ll go as we ’ve 
arranged, if you like. ’ ’ 

“Oh, it isn’t that,” exclaimed the boy. 
“Nothing would please me more than to stay 
here always. But you can see how it is — 
they ’ll all be worried. I ’ve got to get to the 
telegraph as soon as possible and wire them 
I ’m not lost in the sea. ’ ’ 

“I understand,” answered Captain Bassett. 
“It was thoughtless of me to ask it. Go ahead. 
We ’ll leave with the moon.” 

But instead of going ahead, the boy walked 
to his new-found friend’s side. 

“What was it?” he asked curiously. 

“A crazy idea,” answered his host, with a 
laugh. “Please forget it.” 

“I can’t,” said the boy decisively. “If you 


188 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

have the slightest reason to have me stay here 
awhile, I know it is n ’t a crazy idea. Anyway, 
I won^t consent to taking yon away from your 
business on an hour’s notice and unless it is 
convenient for you to go.” 

The man shrugged his shoulders. 

‘‘Coming or going is nothing to me,” he re- 
plied. “I am here not because I am needed — 
my black overseer can he trusted with my busi- 
ness. But there are strange things in these 
faraway keys. For a time you and your flying 
machine set me thinking. I Ve dismissed the 
idea — ” 

“I haven’t,” interrupted Andy. “What- 
ever it was, if the Pelican was a part of it, 
she ’s goin’ to stand there until you tell me 
what you had in mind.” 

The white-costumed man looked at the boy 
with a quizzical smile, appeared to be about to 
speak, and then only shook his head. He and 
the boy were yet standing by the ghostly 
planes of the aeroplane, on which the English- 
man’s hand rested as if the machine meant 
much to him. 

“It ’s about Timbado Key, isn’t it?” sug- 
gested Andy, at last. 

“Yes,” retorted Captain Bassett, startled. 


A Cruise in the Shy 


189 


^‘But how — Oh, yes, I remember: I told you 
it had a tragic story. You ^re a good guesser,’^ 
he concluded, smiling again. 

^m not guessing now,’’ went on the boy 
impulsively, and unable longer to restrain him- 
self. ^‘1 know about Timbado and about 
Cajou.” 

The man came toward him, a look of sur- 
prise on his face. 

’ve never met any white person who 
knew that,” he said at once. ‘‘What is it you 
know?” 

The remark had escaped Andy unwittingly. 
He was embarrassed. 

‘ ‘ I — I did n ’t mean to speak yet, ’ ’ he began. 

‘ ‘ Why not ? ’ ’ retorted his companion. ‘ ‘ What 
do you know?” 

“I ’m awfully sorry I said that. Captain 
Bassett,” went on the boy slowly. “But I ’ll 
tell you after you tell me the real story.” 

“Isn’t yours a real story?” laughed the 
Englishman. 

“ I ’m sure it is n ’t, ” answered Andy impul- 
sively. “At least, I don’t want to talk of it 
now.” 

“It must he uncomplimentary to someone,” 
suggested his friend. 


190 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


The boy, still much confused, blurted out: 
‘at is/^ 

“Am I concerned asked Captain Bassett. 

Andy looked at the man again. There was 
anything but a bad look in the Englishman’s 
face. His strong, sunburned countenance was 
set in feature, but the boy saw nothing more 
than the face of a man accustomed to giving 
orders and being obeyed. Yet, being in for it, 
the lad could not lie. Caught in his indiscre- 
tion, he only nodded his head. 

“After supper, then, we ’ll talk it over,” 
was the Englishman’s only comment. 

“And,” added Andy, eager to show some 
appreciation of the man’s kindness to him, 
“we won’t take the machine apart until I know 
what you were figuring on.” 

“As you like,” replied the man in quite an- 
other tone. 

Nothing more was said until Captain Bas- 
sett’s after-dinner cigar was going well. 

“Now,” he said, “before I tell you of what 
I was thinking and of Timbado Key, I ’d like 
to hear what you know about the place — that is, 
if you like.” 

“I don’t like it at all,” answered Andy in re- 
newed confusion. “And I ’m sure part of 


A Cruise in the Sky 


191 


what I Ve been told is not true. But 1 11 finish 
what I started, even if yon think the less of me 
for it. I ainl much for carryin’ tales.’’ 

‘^It may he true,” was the Englishman’s 
comment, as he settled down in his canvas 
deck chair and luxuriously drew on his Ha- 
vana cigar. 

With no further preface, Andy repeated the 
disjointed tale Ba, the colored man, had grad- 
ually revealed: how the Herculean negro had 
escaped from the jail in Nassau, how he had 
been carried away to Nassau practically a pris- 
oner by Captain Bassett, how he and Nicholas 
and Thomas had been sent to steal the great 
pink pearl from King Cajou, how Ba had act- 
ually seen the jewel and was lashed so cruelly, 
and the unsolved mystery of what came after in 
Ba ’s escape and the disappearance of the other 
conspirators. 

When he had finished, there was no immediate 
response from the man who presumably had 
sent two men to their death at the hands of an 
African cannibal — no denial. But Captain Bas- 
sett’s cigar had gone out. The Englishman at 
last drew a match on the arm of his chair. As 
it flared up at the end of his cigar, the observant 
boy thought he could make out a smile on the 


192 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


strong face of the accused man. Then it was 
dark and silent again. 

‘^This nigger, Cajou,’^ came at last through 
the half dark night from Captain Bassett’s 
chair — and in a voice devoid of either guilt or 
innocence — ^4s more than you have been told. 
So far as I know, I am the only white man who 
has visited his island and come away again. He 
is a king, in a way. He is also the best type of 
the pure blood African as he exists in our island 
world. How he came to be on Timbado, no one 
knows. Nor how he made about himself a set- 
tlement of others of his kind. You can find bits 
of old savagery in similar people on some of 
the other ‘out islands.’ But on Timbado, in 
Cajon’s realm (if you can call it that), there 
no doubt exist practices that you can find no- 
where else but on the Congo. ’ ’ 

“Cannibals?” interrupted Andy, drawing 
his chair forward. 

“Among other things,” replied the speaker, 
“but, of course, only by report. We can imag- 
ine the rest. Also, by report, they are wreckers 
and pirates in a small way. By my own experi- 
ence, I know they are thieves — Cajou an artful 
one. ’ ’ 

“Six years ago,” went on Captain Bassett, 


A Cruise in the Shy 


193 


‘‘in an expedition such as I have made here, I 
visited the southern reefs of the Smaller Bank, 
north of Cajon’s island. As I told you, I am a 
fruit and sisal hemp grower on Andros. But, 
like everyone in the Bahamas, in the off season, 
I utilize my men sponging. And, as you will 
soon learn, sponging means possible pearls. 
Like the gold prospector in other lands, we Ba- 
hamans love to seek the unknown waters where 
always there is the possibility that we never 
quite realize — the Koh-i-noor of pearls; the 
perfect pink pearl that is to make us fortune 
and fame.” 

“I understand,” assented the boy. 

“As you can see,” continued the Englishman, 
“it is n’t an unideal fancy. Even here, in this 
beautiful cove, there is such a chance — ” and 
the boy could almost see a smile. “But six 
years ago, idling as now in about the same kind 
of a sleepy place, I got my first sight of Cajou. 
In a leaky old ‘ sponger, ’ crowded with a cargo 
of half -naked subjects, he did us the honor of 
calling on us.” 

“What ’d he look like?” broke in the en- 
tranced lad. 

“Anything but a king,” went on the English- 
man. “He was certainly eighty years old, gray 


194 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

haired and thin, but not bent. He was stripped 
to the waist, his skin was oiled, and around his 
bony neck was a necklace of bits of pink conch 
shell. He also carried a spear that must have 
come from Africa.^’ 

The boy^s heart beat with excitement — this 
man and his subjects were only a few miles 
away. 

‘^He didn’t favor me with a personal call,” 
continued Captain Bassett, ‘^but I didn’t stand 
on ceremony. From what I had heard of the old 
man, he had a wonderful influence on hard 
working, honest colored men, and I didn’t care 
to have him hanging around the bay. He ar- 
rived about sundown, and when I rowed up to 
the side of his boat, I decided not to go aboard. 
The fish-cleaning shed at the market in Nassau 
was perfume compared to the hold of Cajou’s 
old hulk. 

^‘By right, I had no control over the vicinity, 
but I had plenty of help with me, and I stayed 
only long enough to tell the king that I ’d kick 
a hole into the bottom of his boat if he was n’t 
gone by morning. He left all right, sometime 
in the night, one of my crews of three blacks 
with him. As that was their own business, I 
had to stand it.” 


A Cruise in the Shy 195 

The boy sighed. He had expected a dramatic 
clash. 

‘‘That was only the prelude/^ went on the 
Englishman. “Three weeks later, when I had 
reached home again, my pearl hag not much 
heavier than when I set out, I learned some- 
thing more. I had been near fortune and just 
missed it. Two days before Cajou visited our 
mooring, one of my crews had made the find I 
had been awaiting for years. The great pink 
pearl had been found, and the usual thing hap- 
pened. My men turned conspirators and 
thieves and concealed it.’’ 

Andy sprang to his feet. 

“And that ’s how Cajou got it?” 

“Precisely. One of the men confessed. The 
savage but clever Cajou probably got his 
charms working — ^like as not did it in all pearl 
fleets he could find. Anyway, he got three of 
my men, and you can be sure he got the pearl. ’ ’ 

“What ’d you do?” asked the boy eagerly. 

“What could I do? Somehow it became 
known at once that I knew the facts. All the 
men who had been with me decamped over- 
night. It was useless to go to Nassau and the 
authorities. I had no proof and, besides, Tim- 
bado is far away. Later I did tell the facts tQ 


196 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

the governor. He was good enough to tell me 
if I would locate the property and establish 
proof of ownership, he would attempt to re- 
cover it. He even looked up the location of 
Timbado on the official chart and asked me to 
tea. I was grateful and thanked him. ’ ’ 

‘^Then you never even saw the pearl, said 
Andy. 

“But I tried to,’^ said the captain, shaking 
his head in the negative. “I judged it was 
worth while. So I took the trouble to sail all 
the way to Timbado and call on the king. I 
took six men with me — all colored, but not 
thieves — and we landed at daybreak. The place 
is worth going to see,’’ explained the speaker. 
“It is n ’t much of an island. Including a coral 
reef that surrounds the key, it is about a mile 
across and almost circular. There is a circular 
beach of sand, but the main part of the island 
is a coral elevation with blufP-like sides — it re- 
sembles the hill on which Nassau is built. 

“My men had no longing to go ashore, so I 
did n ’t insist. There was no delegation to wel- 
come us, but I beached the boat and walked over 
to a group of thatched huts at the base of the 
bluff. Several men, clad mainly in rough pal- 
metto hats, watched my approach. One of them, 


A Cruise in the Shy 


197 


fully clothed and weighing at least two hundred 
pounds, came forward. He spoke English, and 
was probably the secretary-of-war, as he car- 
ried a revolver in a belt.’’ 

Andy edged forward again. 

told him I wanted to see the king, and he 
replied by asking if I had tobacco or rum. 
When I told him I was n’t a trader and repeated 
that I wanted to talk to Cajon, he pointed at 
once to my boat and touched his revolver. He 
was so unsociable that I took the trouble to look 
over my own, and then I passed on. 

‘‘The collection of huts was a combination 
cook camp and slaughter pen. Decaying 
conchs was the predominating odor. But it was 
varied with the smell of rotten shark meat, a 
half-consumed shark hanging from a post in 
the center of a filthy court. One glance told me 
that Cajou’s house was not here, for behind the 
odorous pens and the reeking cook pots, I had 
seen steps cut in the coral limestone bluff. 

“These steps,” went on Captain Bassett, 
after he had supplemented his expired cigar 
with a pipe, “were partly concealed under vines 
and dwarfed palnis. After most of those about 
the beach huts had disappeared toward the top 
of the elevation, I followed. When I saw this. 


198 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

it occurred to me at once that the summit would 
make a good cricket ground. Mainly, the place 
was solid, smooth limestone with some sand and 
sparse vegetation, and all sloping to the center, 
where there was a considerable pool or pond. ’ ’ 
Were n’t you afraid?” broke in his auditor. 
But to this there was no reply. 

‘ ‘ On the edge of the pool was a stockade, and 
in this a quadrangle of latania-roofed huts. 
On each side of an opening facing the water 
were two dead cocoa palms. From the top of 
each hung a mess of odds and ends: bones, 
shark heads, colored cloth, shells on long 
strings, that I knew meant royalty. I saw at 
once that the palace was at the lowest part of 
the basin — ^you couldn’t even see the tops of 
the dead palms from the sea. 

‘‘When I started down the slope, black men 
seemed to spring up from every few yards of 
the little palms that grew on the edge of the 
elevation. I counted thirty of them and 
stopped. The fat secretary-of-war was follow- 
ing me. As I got nearer, I saw something in 
the things hanging from the totem-like trunks 
that set me to thinking — ” 

“What was it?” asked the boy, breathlessly. 
“Well,” answered the Englishman, “you ’ve 


A Cruise in the Shy 199 

heard the worst about Timbado. I guess it ’s 
true.’’ 

The boy drew back in horror. 

‘^And you kept on?” he asked, breathing 
hard. 

There were a good many more than I 
thought there ’d be,” went on Captain Bas- 
sett, ‘‘but I ’d served in the English army, part 
of the time in Afghanistan, and I thought I 
might as well. When I got to the open gate, 
I saw that the stockade surrounded the real 
town. It seemed the dormitory for women and 
children. I thought for a minute I ’d seen 
enough and that my men might be getting 
anxious,” went on the old soldier, sucking at 
his pipe, “but I did n’t have much choice. The 
thirty or more full-grown men I had counted 
came crowding up behind, so I went in. 

“All this time there wasn’t a word said. 
Before I could make any explanation, the king 
appeared — old Cajou walked out of one of the 
huts, as thin and straight and gray as I first 
saw him. He had on a blue coat with brass but- 
tons, a navigating officer’s cap marked ‘First 
Mate’ in gold letters, and he carried a gold- 
headed cane. His pink shell necklace was there, 
too, hanging on his breast. 


200 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

‘ ‘ The old man held out his hand, but my eye- 
sight was poor. 

‘Good morning,’ I began. ‘I Ve come for 
my pink pearl. ’ 

“I had a notion that he understood, but he 
shook his head. 

“ ‘You don’t speak English,’ I went on. 

“Again he shook his head. Then I began to 
have a little reason. My curiosity was satis- 
fied. Manifestly, I had gone the limit. Num- 
bers, at least, were against me, whether they 
were armed or not. Before anything could be 
attempted I whirled about, swung my arm to 
open a path, and, as the crowd behind me fell 
back, I walked out of the enclosure. A hubbub 
of voices rose behind me, but not a hand was 
raised against me. Inditference seemed the 
best weapon, and I strolled up to the edge of the 
plateau, passed down the steps and to the 
boat. ’ ’ 

“Then whatf” urged the boy. 

‘ ‘ I had got about as much as I expected. But 
I did not give up wholly. I sailed back home, 
and at last decided on one more attempt. It 
was a slim chance, but I took it. I have often 
regretted it. Your Ba was working for me then 
— his name then was Zaco. I coached Zaco and 


'A Cruise in the Sky 


201 


two other men named Nicholas and Thomas 
to go to Timbado and pose as castaways — ^not 
as thieves. They were simply to discover, if 
possible, whether the pearl was still there or 
had been disposed of. 

‘‘Not one of them ever returned. Your story 
is the first account I ever had of their fate. 
Nicholas and Thomas are either there to-day 
as Cajou’s subjects, or they are dead. Zaco, 
of course, escaped — somehow. The marhs he 
carries with him prove that he saw the pearl 
and that it was there at that time. I Ve felt 
that it has been there all these years. Now that 
we hnow it — ’’ and he paused. 

“Whatr’ exclaimed his listener, every nerve 
atingle. 

“Let ’s go and get it — ^you and I and the aero- 
plane,’’ continued Captain Bassett calmly. 


CHAPTER XVII 


THE BIRD OF DEATH 

Captain Bassett ’s yaclit-like schooner did not 
sail that night. Long after the camp fire of the 
spongers on the beach had fallen into a glow,, 
the Englishman and Andy were in talk in the 
owner’s cabin. On the chart before them the 
compasses were often in play between a dot 
marked ‘‘Timbado Key” and the unnamed in- 
dentation in a long island, where the boy had' 
written in pencil ^ ‘ Palm Tree Cove. ’ ’ 

At seven o ’clock the next morning, two of the 
black men had brought up the unloaded can of 
gasoline. Andy had been taken ashore to the 
Pelican, two of the more intelligent spongers 
had been detailed to assist him, and the 
schooner was heading out of the cove, its ownen 
on the after deck waving his Panama to the boy 
on shore. 

A box of cloth, screws, wire, a hammer and 
saw, candles, tin pans, and three bamboo fishing 
poles had been sent ashore with the young avi- 
ator. Before the schooner had rounded the 
poiut and laid a course to the west, the ope- 
202 


A Cruise in the Shy 


203 


rator of the aeroplane was busy. His shirt 
sleeves rolled up, barefooted and hatless, the 
boy did not seem to mind the semi-tropic sun. 
After a solitary luncheon he was at his task 
again. At three o^clock he paused — the Pelican 
a weird and picturesque sight, her tanks newly 
filled, her oil cups freshly primed. Whatever 
her new mission, she was undoubtedly ready 
for another flight. 

Andy’s fishermen assistants viewed the al- 
tered machine with silent awe. When they had 
helped to wheel it into an advantageous loca- 
tion for a new start and had been dismissed, 
they hurried away, and the boy was alone. 
From his actions, the hours were dragging. 
Four and five o’clock passed with no signs of 
a new flight. The impatient Andy made con- 
stant references to the sun and his watch, with 
now and then little alterations in the aero- 
plane’s new equipment. 

Frequently the boy also consulted a slip of 
paper. 

North, northwest,” he would repeat, ‘^and 
twenty-five miles. At a minute and a half a 
'mile, that ’s thirty-seven and one-half min- 
utes. ’ ’ 

Thirty-eight minutes before Captain Bas- 


204 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

sett’s calculation of sundown, at 6:35 P.M., the 
eager boy at last sprang into his seat, set his 
brake, turned on his power, and in thirty sec- 
onds the low-hanging palm leaves behind him, 
fluttering before his propellers, the now pictur- 
esque Pelican was skimming over the wide 
reach of Palm Tree Cove. 

At one o’clock that afternoon Captain Bas- 
sett’s schooner was tacking off Timbado Key. 
When it dropped anchor off the makeshift of 
a beach village that its navigator had visited 
six years before, a few blacks emerged from the 
hovels. But no one on the schooner came 
ashore, and in the boat there were no signs of 
activity. The white-costumed Englishman sat 
and smoked under the awning. By mid-after- 
noon the beach was thick with a curious group. 

WTien the sun was low in the west, a few min- 
utes before seven o’clock, a small boat shot 
out from the idle, anchored schooner. As it 
grounded on the beach, the semi-savage blacks 
who had watched the strange boat all afternoon, 
moved forward. Captain Bassett, in spotless 
white, sprang ashore. He paused only to light 
a fresh cigar, and then, ignoring the motley 
straggling group, he walked quickly to the steps 
leading to the plateau. 


A Cruise in the Sky 


205 


Here, with only a glance over the sloping 
sides of the basin and the stagnant pool at its 
bottom — its heavy waters already iridescent in 
the dying snn — he strode rapidly toward the 
stockade. As he had seen it before, the king^s 
home still stood — the signs of decay more evi- 
dent, but the totem palm trunks still erect. 

No one blocked his passage, but he did not 
enter the gate. Still swaying on the palm 
trunks, he saw that which sent a chill through 
him. He also saw, almost above, but appar- 
ently guarding the gate, the big black who had 
accosted him on the beach years before. The 
man was heavier, there was a brutish kind of 
fear on his face, but he yet carried in his belt 
the one revolver the Englishman had seen on 
the island. 

^^Tell the great thief Cajou the white man 
is here.’^ 

Captain Bassett uttered these words in a 
tone that made the big black start. 

‘^Him no walk,’’ was the answer in a hesitat- 
ing voice. 

^^Tell the great thief Cajou that the white 
man brings death. ’ ’ 

^^Him sick,” faltered the swarthy guardian. 

Within the shadow of the filthy stockade 


206 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

court, other men could now be seen. The white 
man could see the glare of eyes as if beasts 
were crouching in the fast-gathering night. 

‘‘Tell the great thief Cajou,’’ went on the 
white man — his tone unchanged, cold and im- 
perative, “that to-night comes the Bird of 
Death. He who was robbed of his pearl, to- 
night brings fetich; to-night, the white man 
brings death to the women and children of 
thieves; to-night, out of the south, he com- 
mands the Bird of Death. 

As he spoke, the Englishman observed al- 
most concealed behind those in the enclosure, 
the old African. He was bent now, and as the 
silent assembly fell back to give the grizzled 
savage space, the white man saw that all he had 
said had been heard and understood. Two 
women supported the ruler of Timbado. Shak- 
ing them aside, he felt his way to the gate on 
his cane. 

“White man come — white man go. No 
come — no go more.’’ 

“The great thief Cajou hears,” interrupted 
the unmoving man in white. “To-night, the 
white man brings fetich; to-night, out of the 
sky, he brings death to those who steal and lie 
and to the women and children of those who 
lie — ” 


A Cruise in the Sky 


207 


The tottering chief lunged forward on his 
stick as if to grasp the white man. But the lat- 
ter did not move. 

‘‘Cajou no thief/’ snarled the black. ^‘Him 
no white man pearl.” 

Throwing his head back, the Englishman 
placed his hands to his mouth and called loudly 
into the now shadowed night. 

‘‘Come, Bird of Death,” he cried. Then, 
with a sweep of his right arm toward the south, 
he shouted: “Behold!” 

Sweeping majestically toward the palm to- 
tems out of the already starry night, came an 
object with the whirr of a flock of vultures. 
Like a great bird, the descending shape already 
spread its monstrous wings over the black pool. 
Its long tail could be seen moving against the 
starry sky, while the eyes and throat of its far- 
extended head seemed to belch fire and smoke. 

Back upon each other crowded those about 
Cajou. Alone stood the old man, shaking and 
aghast. Then out of the mouth of the giant 
bird came a cry of rage and the hiss of a snake. 
Wails and cries of fear rent the air; groveling 
on their knees, the occupants of the stockade 
tried to hide their heads ; even the great black 
threw himself behind the wall. Then the an- 


208 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

gry blood-red eyes of the Bird of Death struck 
toward the group, and even the doughty Cajou 
reeled backward. 

‘‘Stop!’’ shouted the white man. “Stop, 
Bird of Death ! Go ! ” he cried. 

As if balked of its prey, the great creature 
of the air seemed to pause. Then, with an al- 
most human snarl, it shot to the left, circled 
over the pool and began to mount the skies in 
apparent flight. 

For a moment the sobs and cries of the pros- 
trate were all that could be heard. The ruler 
of the tropic key still stood, but shaking in 
terror. 

“White man go,” he mumbled at last. But 
his defiance was gone. “Cajou no got white 
man’s pearl.” 

“ You lie ! ” exclaimed the Englishman. Then 
he held out his hand. ‘ ‘ Give 1 ” he commanded. 
His tone seemed to wound the black man. 
“No?” he added fiercely, as Cajou only 
cringed. 

“Cajou no pearl, no thief,” at last began the 
African. 

“Come, Bird of Death,” cried the white man 
once more. “Eat the women and children of 
the great thief. Come!” 



* ^ Come, Bird of Death ! ’ ’ 




Ar 



A Cruise in the Sky 


211 


As he spoke, he could see the blood-red eyes 
turned toward him again; then he saw the 
points of fire dip, and he knew the indistinguish- 
able object was once more hurtling toward the 
stockade. 

There were new cries of terror. Then the 
hiss and snarl high above sounded again. Big- 
ger grew the glaring eyes of the Bird of Death, 
and then out of its gaping throat came a stream 
of fire. The roar of the returning object swept 
before it. 

“Eat black man; eat black man!’’ came a 
voice out of the hollow sky. 

Amid a hundred shrieks, a terror-stricken 
form threw itself at the white man’s feet. 

“Cajon lie; Cajou lie,” it wailed. “White 
man make stop. ’ ’ 

“Come, Bird of Death!” roared the iron- 
nerved Englishman. 

“Eat black woman, eat black baby!” fell 
again from the clouds. 

One more look, and the prostrate Cajou 
caught at the buttons on his faded coat, tore 
the garment loose at the neck, and struck out 
his palzied hand. 

“Stop!” commanded the man in white, as he 
shot up his arm to stay the avenging bird. He 


212 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

could barely see tbe old man; but be felt tbe 
outstretched hand. Grasping the object in it, 
he found it still attached to a cord. With a 
snap he tore it loose. His fingers closed on 
what he knew was a small skin bag. Then with 
a thrill he felt within the bag a pear-shaped 
object. It required no look to tell him what it 
was. 

^‘Begone he cried. ‘‘Cajou saves his 
people.’’ 

As he spoke, he discharged his revolver over 
the heads of the prostrate subjects of the out- 
witted black man, and there was an answering 
shout from the fiery Bird of Death as it swept 
over the stockade. The Fiend of the Skies had 
been thwarted once more by the fetich of the 
white man and, with another hiss of rage, its 
yawning throat yet spitting flames and smoke, 
the Bird of Death turned and disappeared 
seaward. 

When it had passed, and Cajon and his 
people looked again for the all-powerful white 
man who had saved them, he was gone. None 
followed the retreating ghostlike form of the 
fetich maker, and as Captain Bassett felt his 
way down the bluff steps, he could see fading 
the red eyes of the air monster. 


A Cruise in the Shy 


213 


On the beach once more, his faithful men and 
boat ready for him, he paused, drew the little 
bag from his pocket and struck a match. There 
was but one glance, and he threw the match 
from him. Cajou had not deceived him this 
time. The great pink pearl had come back to 
its owner. 

When the Pelican sailed away from Palm 
Tree Cove on that eventful evening, thirty- 
seven and one-half minutes before sunset, the 
spongers, left in open-mouthed wonder, soon 
began an important task. Dry driftwood and 
fallen palm trees were collected until it was 
wholly dark. Then fires were started on the 
beach in two places, to the right and left of the 
Pelican^ s starting place. A few minutes after 
eight o’clock, out of a louder and louder whirr 
in the starlit skies, with a rush as of a rising 
wind, the aeroplane darted heachward. 

In the shadows, the daring young aviator, 
stiff in muscle and worn with strain, landed in 
the shallow water. As if newly alarmed, the 
waiting spongers hung hack. But the tired boy 
sprang into the water, grasped the sinking ma- 
chine, and in a few moments a dozen willing 
hands had drawn it high on the white sand. 
With no attempt to dry his clothes, and with 


214 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

only a glance at Ms watch in the glare of the 
beach fires, the exhausted boy threw him self on 
the sand alongside the aeroplane and was soon 
unconscious. 

When he awoke, it was day, and Captain Bas- 
sett was standing over him. 

‘‘Come to the schooner,’’ said the English- 
man kindly, “get some breakfast and a bath 
and finish your sleep in bed. ’ ’ 

Dazed for a moment, Andy rubbed his eyes, 
and then sprang into a sitting posture. 

“Did you get it?” he cried eagerly. 

The captain smiled, nodded his head, and 
then looked knowingly toward the spongers just 
departing for their day’s work. 

“I understand,” exclaimed the boy jubi- 
lantly. “It was a peach of an idea. The old 
Pelican was all right, was n’t she?” 

Again Captain Bassett smiled and assisted 
the stiff boy to his feet. 

“The idea was all right, but you did the busi- 
ness. She don’t look so awful now, does she?” 
and he pointed toward the still bedraggled aero- 
plane. 

Both broke into laughter. Drooping on the 
beach, lay the Pelican^ s improvised neck and 
bird head made of lashed bamboo poles. The 


A Cruise in the Sky 


215 


two suspended lanterns covered with red calico 
curtains from the schooner were far from de- 
ceptive in the sunlight. The band of red cloth 
on a crude frame beneath these, behind which 
had hung balls of coal oil soaked rags (the 
throat of the marvelous bird) was sagging in 
the sand. 

‘‘Here ’s where I touched off the balls,’’ ex- 
plained Andy, still chuckling with amusement. 
“My oil string fuse ran through these wire 
loops.” 

“When the wind blew the flames down,” said 
the captain, “it was like a dragon spitting fire. 
And that yell of yours ! It was n’t much like a 
bird — it was most grewsome. Andy,” he added 
suddenly and seriously, “of course, it is n’t nec- 
essary to say you ’ve done a big thing for me.” 

“You don’t need to begin that,” exclaimed 
the boy at once. “You ’ve helped me and are 
goin’ to help me some more. That ’s enough. 
But I ’d like to see the pearl.” 

Cautiously the Englishman took the bag from 
his pocket. As the boy’s eyes fell on the lus- 
trous, pale rose-colored gem, he caught his com- 
panion’s arm. In the shape of a flattened pear 
and almost an inch and a half long, the tropic 
jewel seemed to radiate a glow of life. 


216 The Aeroplane Boys Series 

^‘What ’s it worth r’ whispered the dazed 
boy. 

‘‘Twenty years of isolation in this desolate 
world, ’ ^ said the suddenly sobered Englishman. 

‘ ‘ In money, it has no price. It is not for sale. ’ ’ 

There was no more rest for Andy that morn- 
ing. When the Pelican had been taken apart 
and loaded on the schooner and Captain Bas- 
sett’s crews of spongers had been embarked in 
their small boats, it was noon. While luncheon 
was served under the awning, the schooner 
passed out of the cove on her way to Andros 
Island. 

Physically exhausted and his nerves un- 
strung, Captain Bassett put Andy in his bunk 
at once. When he awoke it was dark, the 
schooner was cutting through a moonlit sea and 
the boy knew it was late in the night. WTien he 
awoke again it was day and the schooner was 
tacking among almost countless islands. 

A little later Andros Island was in sight. 
Then a heavily-laden schooner, freighted with 
baled sisal hemp and crates of oranges and pine- 
apples, was hailed by the incoming schooner. 

“It ’s one of my boats,” explained Captain 
Bassett, “on her way to Nassau. We ’ll send 
your cablegram on it. ’ ’ 


A Cruise in the Sky 


217 


not put me aboard?’’ asked Andy, 
again lively and full of vim. 

‘‘It can’t well take the aeroplane,” explained 
the Englishman. “Besides, I want to take you 
to Nassau myself. I ’ll see you properly started 
for your own country.” 

That was why the daring young adventurer 
was some days in the rear of his cablegram. 
When, in a few days, he did reach the interest- 
ing historic old town of Nassau, he was forced 
to accept several more favors from his kindly 
host. He saw no way of escaping a loan suffi- 
cient to cover his passage by steamer and rail 
back to Valkaria by way of Lake Worth, and 
to pay the freight bill on his aeroplane. 

“But I ’ll return it,” insisted Andy. 

“As you like,” responded his friend, “if 
you ’ll bring it yourself, and your father and 
mother, and spend a winter with me on An- 
dros.” 

“And Ba?” added the boy. 

“I ’ll take care of him as long as he lives, if 
he ’ll come,” was the Englishman’s answer. 

When the big Florida-bound steamer had 
made her way out past Hog Island and was in 
the channel roll, the boy went below to inspect 
his cabin. Pinned to the pillow on his bed was 


218 


The Aeroplane Boys Series 


an envelope addressed: ‘‘Mr. Andrew Leighton 
— to be opened at sea.” 

Tearing it open, a narrow strip of blue paper 
dropped in Andy’s hands. It read: ‘‘Royal 
Bank of Nassau. Pay to Andrew Leighton or 
order £1,000. Monckton Bassett.” 


The next story in The Aeroplane Boys Series tells how these 
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A!JG 21 





